Deerkop v. State

• Decision Date: 08 May 1928
• Parties: DEERKOP v. STATE.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

196 Wis. 571

219 N.W. 278

DEERKOP

v.STATE.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

May 8, 1928.

Error to the Circuit Court for Bayfield County; G. N. Risjord, Circuit Judge. Affirmed.

Plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as defendant, Chris Deerkop, was charged with the murder of Guy P. Hurley. He was convicted of murder in the first degree, and brings this writ of error.

On June 23, 1925, two young men living on a farm in close proximity to Williams Lake, in Bayfield county, Wis., went down to the lake to fish at about 6 o'clock in the evening. They approached the lake near a cabin owned by one Frank Drummond, and in which the defendant, Deerkop, had previously lived for about a year, though not for some months prior to this date. As they passed the cabin and proceeded towards the lake, they discovered the body of a man lying in the grass. His face was smeared with blood. They made no examination of the body, but returned towards their home with a view of notifying the authorities. Dr. Kate Clark, who resided at the village of Cable, about 2 1/2 miles distant, was summoned, and she with others arrived at the scene at about 7:30. She examined the body, and found life extinct. She concluded that the man had been dead about two or three hours. The body was cold, but rigor mortis had not set in. The body was not disturbed until the arrival of the coroner at about 10:30 in the evening. He found nothing in the pockets of the clothes, except a few .38 caliber revolver cartridges. Before his arrival some inconsequential papers were found in the grass and brush near the body. These were not observed by the young men who first discovered the body. These papers gave no clew to the identity of the body nor to his former place of residence. There were some memoranda containing streets and addresses, but did not indicate the city. The pockets had not been turned inside out, and there was no other evidence to indicate that the clothes had been rifled.

Suspicion centered on Deerkop, and he was arrested the following morning. It appears that Deerkop was well acquainted with the locality, having worked in and about Cable for a number of years, and had lived in the house near to which the body was found for a considerable length of time. He had worked on the Drummond farm, on which this house was located, for three or four years. It is impossible to get a detailed impression of the locus in quo from the record. It appears that a blackboard was used for the purpose of illustrating distances and places before the jury, and in testifying witnesses would point to certain places on this blackboard and say that such and such occurred about here, or that he was seen about there. Manifestly this blackboard could not be preserved as an exhibit, with the result that we are unable to visualize the situation but in a most general way. We have endeavored to supply this defect in the record by reference to maps, with little success, as the maps themselves are not in agreement upon the location of the lakes, highways, etc. This record strikingly illustrates the necessity of making use of exhibits in durable form during the course of a trial, which may be preserved and returned with the bill of exceptions.

Probably suspicion centered upon Deerkop because he was seen about 4:30 of the afternoon of the day in question walking along a highway by R. A. Goff, chairman of the town of Cable, about a half mile from Williams Lake. After hearing of the murder, Mr. Goff made an examination of the tracks left by defendant on the road. He measured them with a lath. He also measured some tracks which he found on the road coming from Lake Namakogon. (The record does not show whether these tracks were going toward Lake Williams or coming from Lake Williams, or whether they were a continuation of the tracks made in the road at the time Goff met the defendant, for which reason much of their significance is lost.) The tracks thus made corresponded in length to the shoes which the defendant wore at the time of his arrest the next morning.

Jacob Plis was at his farm home Monday afternoon, June 22d. About 6 o'clock in the afternoon he saw two men crossing a field owned by Frank Drummond. They were apparently going in the direction of Williams Lake. The tracks left by these two men were subsequently examined. The shoes belonging to the defendant exactly fitted into one set of tracks, while the shoes belonging to the deceased exactly fitted into the other. The shoes worn by the defendant were square-toed shoes while the shoes belonging to the deceased had pointed toes. Although it does not appear definitely from the record, the plain inference is that they were going towards Williams Lake. The defendant admits that he walked across this field, but claims it was Tuesday afternoon, after he was seen by the witness Goff, that he was alone, and that, when he crossed the field, he was on his way to the farmhouse of one Pendry, where he was arrested the next morning. Upon his arrest, he gave the authorities the following account of his recent movements: He left Cudahy, where he had been working in a rubber factory, on the 18th day of June; arrived at Spooner on the morning of the 18th; remained there all day; took an evening train for Ashland, arriving there at about 10:30. He stayed at the Hotel Menard in Ashland that night. He left Ashland at about 11 o'clock in a bus for Duluth. He was in Duluth and Superior until Sunday, the 21st, when he took a bus back to Ashland, arriving there between 9 and 10 o'clock in the evening. That night he stayed in the Silver Hotel. The next morning he took his suit case over to the depot of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway Company, and placed it in a locker. He wandered aimlessly around Ashland that day until about 9 o'clock in the evening, when he claims he was kidnapped at the point of a revolver, put into an automobile, driven about 20 miles down state highway No. 13, where he was robbed and put out of the automobile. All of the money he had, with the exception of $5, was taken from him; the amount taken being about $50. He then walked back to Ashland, arriving there about 7 o'clock in the morning of June 23d. About 9 o'clock in the morning he took a train and went to Drummond. He got off the train at Drummond and walked south on highway 24, until he came to Drummond's field, about a half mile from Cable, a station south of Drummond. He crossed Drummond's field and went to Plis Lake to get a drink of water. From Plis Lake he went out onto the Owen road, where he met the witness Goff. This also was his testimony on the trial.

Mrs. Mildred Blackburn testified that her mother runs the Silver Hotel at Ashland, that she had been living with her mother at said hotel for thirteen years, and that she was acting as clerk of the hotel on Sunday, the 21st day of June. The register of the hotel was introduced in evidence, showing that Deerkop had registered at that hotel on that day. She did not remember Deerkop, but said that she rented room No. 1 to two men, and that that was the room occupied by Deerkop. Deerkop admits that he occupied room No. 1, but claims that he occupied it alone. Mrs. Blackburn claims that he occupied it in company with another man, and that they paid her $1.50 in advance for the room. Deerkop claims he paid her 75 cents for the room in advance. The other man registered under the name of C. O'Neil, Chicago.

The body was finally recognized as that of Guy P. Hurley, of Centuria, Wis. His sister testified to his identity at the trial, and testified that she first saw the body at her brother-in-law's home at Centuria. She had not seen him for three years prior to the murder, and did not know anything about his whereabouts during those years.

A pair of socks were taken from the body of the deceased while it lay at Williams Lake. A laundry tag was attached to the top of one of the socks with a metal clasp. This tag had on it the letters C. D. The sock was a very common sock, made of a white and brown mixture. Similar socks containing similar tags were found in the suit case of the defendant.

Upon this evidence the jury returned a verdict as follows:

“We the jury find the defendant guilty of the offense charged in the information.

Robert Little, Foreman.”

The information was as follows:

“I, John W. Bernard, District attorney in and for said Bayfield county, do hereby inform the court that on the 23d day of June, 1925, at said county, Chris Deerkop did feloniously, willfully, and of his malice aforethought kill and murder one Guy P. Hurley, against the peace and dignity of the state of Wisconsin.”

John A. Cadigan, of Superior (John J. Fisher, of Bayfield, and Cadigan & Cadigan,...