Freeman v. State, 40040

• Decision Date: 08 October 1956
• Docket Number: No. 40040,40040
• Citation: 228 Miss. 687,89 So.2d 716
• Parties: Lincoln (Link) FREEMAN v. STATE.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 716

89 So.2d 716

228 Miss. 687

Lincoln (Link) FREEMAN v. STATE.

No. 40040.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Oct. 8, 1956.

John Farese, Ashland, for appellant.

Joe T. Patterson, Atty. Gen., by J. R. Griffin, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

KYLE, Justice.

The appellant, Lincoln Freeman, was tried and convicted at the August 1955 Term of the Circuit Court of Marshall County on a charge of murder in the killing of O. T. Holt, and was sentenced by the court to imprisonment in the state penitentiary for the term of his natural life. From that judgment he prosecutes this appeal.

The killing occurred sometime after midnight on July 24, 1954, at a picnic for members of the colored race on the Levi Bell farm, a few miles northwest of the City of Holly Springs. The picnic was attended by several hundred members of the colored race. The record does not show whether the moon was shining or not. But the grounds were illuminated by torches placed in the heads of jugs.

It appears from the testimony of the State's witnesses that the appellant, accompanied by Douglas Burton, Almerth Cowan and Ora Mae Warren left Holly Springs about 8:00 o'clock p. m. to drive to the picnic. As they were leaving town he stopped his car in front of the Ford place and picked up O. T. Holt, who had asked permission to go to the picnic with him and the other members of his party. The appellant arrived at the picnic grounds about 9:00 o'clock p. m., and parked his car near the entrance to the picnic grounds. O. T. Holt then handed to the appellant a bag of money and a paper sack and asked that the packages be placed in the glove compartment of the car. The appellant placed the packages in the glove compartment and locked the car. The members of the party then separated. Sometime after midnight, the members of the party reassembled near the parked car preparatory to departing for their homes,--all except O. T., who was not with them. The appellant went back into the picnic grounds to look for O. T. and found him in a dice game at the foot of a hill a considerable distance from the place where the car was parked. O. T. appeared to be winning. The appellant tapped him on the shoulder and said to him, 'Let's go.' O. T. told the appellant to wait a minute until he 'dropped off the dice,' and O. T. gave the appellant a dollar bill which he tore into two pieces to hold for him. He then rolled the dice again and gave the appellant a ten-dollar bill and a five-dollar bill. Finally, O. T. 'fell off' and stated that he was ready to go. A few minutes after Holt and the appellant left the dice game several shots were fired; there were cries for help; and O. T.'s body was found lying in a puddle of blood only a short distance from the place where the dice games were being played.

The body was picked up a short time thereafter by a local undertaker, who testified that the deceased had been shot in the chest and was dead when he arrived at the scene of the killing. The bullet had entered the right chest and had come out about the backbone.

The appellant was arrested a few hours after the shooting and was questioned by Asa Holbrook, night watchman and marshal of the City of Holly Springs, in the presence of the chief of police and the sheriff, and was again questioned by the sheriff, in the presence of the county attorney, on July 26, in the back room of the sheriff's office. All of the above mentioned officers testified during the trial. The statements which the appellant made to the officers concerning his own movements during the night and the events which led up to the shooting were substantially the same as the statements which he made to the jury during the trial in the circuit court.

The State's proof consisted mainly of the testimony of Ora Mae Warren, Douglas Burton, Gus Tuggles and Mose Faulkner.

Ora Mae Warren testified that she went with the appellant to the picnic, and that Douglas Burton, Almerth King and O. T. Holt went with them in Link's car. After they got to the picnic grounds the members of the party separated. They met back at the merry-go-round sometime after mid-night--all except O. T., and Link asked them if they were ready to go home. They said they were ready and all went down to the roadside where the car was parked--all except O. T., who was not with them. Link asked where O. T. was and Ora Mae told him that O. T. had said that he was going to gamble. Link then said he would go back and get O. T. The other members of the party waited at the car. A few minutes later they heard someone say that O. T. had been shot. They then went back into the picnic grounds to find out about O. T. and met Link coming toward the car. Link said, 'Ora Mae, they tell me O. T. have been shot five times.' Ora Mae and Douglas and Link then walked down the hill to the place where the dice games were being played. Ora Mae found O. T.'s body lying on the ground not far from the dice game and Ora Mae and Douglas walked over and looked at the body, but Link did not go with them. Ora Mae stated that on their way back to town Link said to her, 'Ora Mae, don't say anything about what I told you on the ground the second time, because I don't want to be involved, for I have a wife and family.' Ora Mae said to him, 'You didn't kill him, did you?' Link said, 'No, I didn't see him.' Ora Mae stated that Link was wearing a white cap and a light blue tail-out shirt when they went to the picnic. On cross-examination Ora Mae stated that she and O. T. worked at the same place; and she stated that when they got to the picnic, Link unlocked the door of the glove compartment of the car and O. T. put a bag of money which belonged to the cafe where O. T. worked and also a paper sack, which O. T. said had some shorts in it, in the glove compartment, and Link locked the door of the car. When Link, Ora Mae and Douglas got back to town, after the killing, Link unlocked the glove compartment and handed the sacks which O. T. had left in the car pocket to Ora Mae. Ora Mae stated that she saw no gun at any time that night.

Douglas Burton's testimony was substantially the same as that of Ora Mae Warren.

Gus Tuggles testified that he was at the dice game when the appellant walked up to O. T. and touched him on the shoulder and said, 'Let's go.' O. T. said to the appellant, 'I'se gwine in a few minutes, when I fall off.' Finally, the appellant said to O. T., 'Fellar, I'se got to go', and O. T. said, 'All right, I'se gwine directly.' O. T. then tore a one-dollar bill in two and handed both pieces to the appellant and said, 'Keep this, I might lose it.' O. T. also handed the appellant a ten-dollar bill and a five-dollar bill. A few minutes later O. T. got up to leave, and as he was leaving he gave Gus Tuggles and Venus Alexander each a one-dollar bill. Tuggles stated that he then went up the hill to get something to eat. The appellant and O. T. appeared to be leaving the dice game about the same time. The appellant was wearing a white short sleeve shirt, with the tail worn outside, white slippers and blue pants, and what looked like a white cap. Tuggles stated that about six or eight minutes after he left the dice game he heard the pistol shots and someone said that O. T. had been killed. Tuggles stated that the day after the shooting he found a white cap and 35 cents in money about 50 feet from the place where O. T.'s body was found.

Mose Faulkner testified that he was at a crap game, sitting down, when the killing occurred. He was not gambling. He did not know the appellant or O. T. Holt at that time. But he heard a shot and bent over in the game, and then raised back up and heard another shot, and then he heard a man say, 'Don't shoot, don't shoot me Link, you can get all I got.' He called the name 'Link' twice. The witness stated that Link then slapped his hand in his pocket and shot O. T. again. The man who did the shooting had on a white nylon shirt with the tail out. He had on a white cap. The witness stated that he was about 30 feet from the deceased when he was shot. He stated that after the shooting O. T. called 'Gus' twice. He said, 'Oh Gus', and that was all he said. The man who shot him then went in his pocket and got the money and walked on off. The witness was asked whether the man who shot the deceased was the size of Link Freeman or not. His answer was 'Yes, sir.' The witness stated that the grounds around the crap games were lighted up with torches. The game that he was watching before the shooting was not the game that O. T. was shooting craps in. The witness stated that he saw O. T.'s assailant get some money out of his pocket--'I was looking right at him.'

Willie Stewart, commonly known as 'Bubba', testified that he was with O. T. and Link on Wednesday night before the Friday night picnic at a cafe down on the roadside on Highway No. 7, where a crap game was going on, and that O. T. had won $40 in a crap game the night before he was killed and Link was the heaviest loser.

The appellant, testifying in his own behalf, stated that he was working at Swift & Company's Refinery and was making $52.60 per week at the time he was arrested. He stated that he received his pay on Friday afternoon, and went to the picnic that night. Douglas Burton, Ora Mae Warren, Almerth Cowan and O. T. Holt went with him. When they arrived at the picnic grounds O. T. gave him a bag of money and a paper sack which he placed in the glove compartment of the car. He did not know what was in the sack. The members of the party then separated and it was not until sometime after midnight that they reassembled to go home. When they got down to the place where the car was parked, O. T. was not with them; and the appellant went back to the picnic grounds to get O. T. He found O. T. at a dice game, and asked him if he was ready to go home. O. T. said, 'All right, wait a minute until I drop off the dice.' O. T. gave the appellant a one-dollar bill in two pieces to hold for him, and...