Ex parte Bonner

• Decision Date: 30 January 1894
• Citation: 14 So. 648,100 Ala. 114
• Parties: EX PARTE BONNER.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

14 So. 648

100 Ala. 114

EX PARTE BONNER.

Supreme Court of Alabama

January 30, 1894

Petition by John Bonner, who was indicted for the murder of A. J Higgins, for writ of habeas corpus, to determine his right to be admitted to bail. Bail refused.

Mrs Elizabeth Higgins, wife of the deceased, testified that petitioner, before the killing, had a fight with Silas Higgins, the youngest son of herself and Andrew J. Higgins and Andrew J. took the matter up and swore out a warrant against petitioner on account of it; that about a week after the difficulty, petitioner told her, speaking of her family that he would kill some of the damned set, before a week that this was about a month before her husband was killed that in the spring of the year, before, she heard him threaten to kill them; that in the summer, she heard him say, that if her husband said anything to him out of the way, he would knock him down; that on a Monday night, between 10 and 12 o'clock, her husband was killed, standing in the door of his own house; that the family-deceased, herself, and two daughters, aged 16 and 12 years, respectively-were asleep in their house, and some one threw a rock against the house and awoke them, and her husband arose and went to the door, and stood on the steps outside, while witness stood inside the door; that her husband had his gun; that something like a cap burst and her husband shot that way, when she saw the flash of three guns just outside the yard fence; that her husband was shot in the leg, arm and shoulder, and died in a few minutes afterwards, his only exclamation or words being, "Oh, yes!" Cram Swindle testified, that petitioner stayed at his house,-which was some 10 miles from where Higgins lived,-the night it was said the latter was killed, and the next morning, he asked witness if he knew where the Higgins boys were at work, and talked about the Higgins family and his having trouble with them, one way and another, and said, it looked like some of them would die. Bud Swindle testified, that petitioner stated, while he was at his father's house, that his business was to find Andrew and Ed Higgins, who had threatened his life, and he wanted to find them. John Meyers, witness for defendant, testified, that in the spring of the previous year, he met with petitioner, just after he had bought a little tract of land "down there," and said he had bought this piece of land to move the Higginses to, and, if he could not get them out, by that (means,) he was going to kill them all. Mrs. John Meyer, for the state, testified, that in March of the year Higgins was killed, she met petitioner who said, that the Higginses had set in to grieving him, and he was going to town to see what he could have done with them; that he and the old man had just met a while before; that he thought a heap of the old man and had nothing against him; that the old man said he could not move now, but would, when he made his crop, in the fall, and if they did not move, he would move them. Jim Smith testified, that last May a year ago, he heard John Bonner, the petitioner, in a conversation with old man Higgins, so loud that you could hear him a half mile, say, that if they did not attend to their business, he would kill big, little, old and young. Rufus Bell testified, that in the first part of the last winter, he heard petitioner say, that if the Higginses kept on molesting him "and got him where he had to," he would shoot one. Thomas Smith testified, that some time before the old man was killed, petitioner was at witness' house, and witness was endeavoring to get him reconciled with the Higginses, and told him if there was not a reconciliation, they would be the instigation of his death, and he remarked, that 20 men had told him that if he was found dead, not a Higgins would be left in that hollow. Bill Leonard swore, that a few days before the killing, he was advising John Bonner to get some of his neighbors to fix up the difficulty between him and the Higginses, and he stated, that somebody would have to give a $500 bond between that and Saturday night. Andrew Higgins testified, that he heard his brother, George, say to petitioner, this year, that he, the petitioner, had been carrying a pistol for his folks and that he had told his father that he meant to kill big, little, old and young, and he replied he did, and he meant it. John Higgins on his examination stated, that he heard petitioner make the threat, the winter before, that if the Higginses did not leave there, and take those boys away, he was going to kill the old man and Ed Higgins, both. Sam Key, for the state, swore, that he was near Mr. Higgins' house, the night he was killed,-about 10 o'clock in the night; that the reason he was there was, that Charley Morris-a brother-in-law of Bogue Bonner, a brother of petitioner-came by his house, and they went together, to petitioner's house, about dark, and went off east of the house and sat down and talked awhile about the...