Green v. State

• Decision Date: 03 December 1892
• Citation: Green v. State, 20 S.W. 712 (Tex. Crim. App. 1892)
• Parties: GREEN <I>et al.</I> v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

20 S.W. 712

GREEN et al. v. STATE.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

December 3, 1892.

Appeal from district court, Grimes county; NORMAN G. KITTRELL, Judge.

Bill Green and Mary Ann Huggins were jointly tried and convicted of murder in the second degree, and appeal. Reversed.

Preston & Spencer, for appellants. R. L. Henry, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

HURT, P. J.

Appellants were jointly tried and convicted of murder in the second degree for the homicide of Taylor Huggins. To sustain the conviction of Bill Green, the state relies upon the dying declarations of the deceased, who stated next morning, being shot the night before, to several persons, that "Bill Green shot him." Deceased did not mention any of the circumstances attending the shooting. He simply stated that "Bill Green shot him." When we look into the circumstances surrounding the shooting we find that Mary Ann was the wife of deceased. That a short time before the shooting, Ann had procured his arrest and confinement in the county jail upon a charge of rape upon her daughter. Before and after being released from jail, deceased had frequently threatened the life of Mary Ann, which threat had been communicated to her. It appears that it rained the evening before, and continued to rain until late on the night of the shooting. Bill Green lived about two miles from Mary Ann's, and had been hunting on the evening before the shooting, and stopped at Mary Ann's at about sundown, it is claimed to get out of the rain. One Julia Edwards was also at the house, and remained until about 12 o'clock that night, when she left and went over to her home, about 60 or 70 yards distant. She states that, about 1 or 2 o'clock, "I heard Mary Ann calling me to come over to her house quick. I went over, and she took me to the door leading from the main room to the shed room, and showed me a wet coat and pair of pants which had been left, identifying then as belonging to deceased, where some floor planks had been pushed up." She went back home, but did not go to bed. About an hour later she heard loud talking at Mary Ann's house. She "went to the window, and recognized the voice of Taylor Huggins and Mary Ann, the defendant." She heard Taylor say: "`I have come to have my revenge. I am going to kill you. I sent you word by Steve Ferguson I was going to kill you, and I know you got the word.' A few minutes after this I heard a gun fire, and saw a flash, but did not go up to the house." Steve Ferguson testifies he met deceased in the road a few days before the killing, and he asked him (Ferguson) to tell Mary Ann he was going to kill her; also that he delivered the message. As testified by defendants and Mary Ann's daughter, between 2 and 3 o'clock that night they heard a noise in the adjoining shed room, and, upon lighting a lamp, it was discovered that two of the floor planks had been raised, and a wet coat and pair of pants, which were recognized as deceased's, were found. Mary Ann called Julia Edwards over, and showed her the clothes. About half an hourlater, after she had returned home, a noise was heard at the front door, and defendant's daughter raised the inside latch, and the door was pushed open with such force as to knock her over a box close by. Deceased entered, and told Mary Ann he had sent her word he was going to kill her, and he had come to do it. She called to Bill Green to help her, and they, with the assistance of the daughter, put him out of the house. He went about 20 steps, turned, and picked up an elm stick, about the size of a chair post, and started back into the house. Mary Ann called to Green to shoot him, when he replied, "This is not my house." She then seized the gun, and fired the fatal shot, while deceased was about 20 feet away. It also appears that Taylor Huggins had, about 2 o'clock in the evening before the homicide, borrowed from Jack White, or Whitesides, a horse. Next morning, after the shooting, deceased was asked by F. M. Anderson "how he came there," and deceased replied that he rode. Anderson asked him "where his horse was." Deceased answered by nodding towards a thicket of bushes situated about 75 or 100 yards from the house. The horse, "after considerable search," was found in the thicket tied to a bush.

As we have said, the state relies upon the statement of deceased that "Bill Green shot me" for proof to sustain the conviction of Green. Deceased mentioned no attending fact or circumstance; he simply stated that Bill Gr...