Commonwealth v. Byrd

• Decision Date: 14 February 1921
• Docket Number: 2
• Citation: 269 Pa. 179,112 A. 457
• Parties: Commonwealth v. Byrd, Appellant
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

112 A. 457

Commonwealth v. Byrd, Appellant

269 Pa. 179

No. 2

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

February 14, 1921

Argued January 3, 1921

Appeal, No. 2, May T., 1921, by defendant, from judgment of O. & T. Dauphin Co., June T., 1920, No. 46, on verdict of murder of the first degree, in case of Commonwealth v Charles Byrd, alias Willie Palmer. Affirmed.

Indictment for murder. Before HENRY, P.J., specially presiding.

The opinion of the Supreme Court states the facts.

Verdict murder of the first degree, on which sentence of death was passed. Defendant appealed.

Error assigned, inter alia, was refusal of new trial, quoting record.

The assignments of error are overruled, the judgment is affirmed, and the record is remitted for the purpose of execution.

Mark T. Milnor, with him Maurice R. Metzger, for appellant.

Philip S. Moyer, District Attorney, for appellee.

Before MOSCHZISKER, C.J., FRAZER, WALLING, SIMPSON, KEPHART, SADLER and SCHAFFER, JJ.

OPINION

PER CURIAM

Defendant has appealed from a sentence of death, on a conviction of murder in the first degree; he assigns for error only the final judgment and the refusal of the court below to grant him a new trial.

We have read the testimony; it plainly shows that the issues involved were for the jury; and the manner in which they were submitted is not formally complained of. Since the opinion of the learned court below fully covers the case, we affirm on the following excerpts therefrom:

"Defendant and Duff Haygood lived in a workmen's camp at Locust Grove, near Steelton. Haygood was a janitor at this camp. On the night of November 13, 1918, there was some trouble between a man named Jolly and defendant, in which Haygood took part. Defendant claimed that he was struck by Jolly and Haygood on this occasion, and that Haygood then said that, if defendant were large enough to fight, he, Haygood, would cut his throat. Defendant also testified that Jolly and Haygood followed him to another shanty and made an assault upon him that he passed Haygood the following night, when neither spoke and nothing occurred. On the night of November 15th both were in the pool room, and defendant left, according to his story, going to his own room, and, returning shortly thereafter, met Haygood and a man named Slim Evans. The witnesses for the Commonwealth testified that Haygood said nothing and offered no violence toward defendant, but that defendant, without warning and without provocation, drew his revolver and shot Haygood. Defendant testified that he came from his room with the revolver in his pocket and his hand upon the revolver; that, when he met Haygood and Evans, they separated, and he attempted to pass around Haygood, when Haygood grabbed his arms and in the struggle defendant's hand closed on the revolver and it was discharged; that he feared Haygood and intended to shoot either Haygood or Evans. Four bullet wounds were found on Haygood, [any one of] three of which were necessarily fatal, and there were no powder stains near these wounds. Defendant fled after the shooting, finally landing at Hog Island, where he worked under an assumed name; he ...