Greenwood v. State

• Citation: 156 S.W. 427,107 Ark. 568
• Parties: GREENWOOD v. STATE
• Decision Date: 21 April 1913
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

156 S.W. 427

107 Ark. 568

GREENWOOD v. STATE

Supreme Court of Arkansas

April 21, 1913

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Appeal from Pulaski Circuit Court, First Division; Robert J. Lea Judge; affirmed.

STATEMENT BY THE COURT.

Elijah Greenwood was indicted for the crime of murder in the first degree charged to have been committed by killing Alice Turner. The testimony on the part of the State is substantially as follows:

On the 29th day of November, 1912, some boys were hunting near Sweet Home, in Pulaski County, Arkansas, and, as they say, between 1 and 2 o'clock in the daytime they found the body of Alice Turner, who had been recently killed. Her body had been dragged from a path through a fence and from six to eight feet into the woods. A physician examined her body and found a gunshot wound right in the middle of the back of her skull just above the neck. Her skin and hair around the wound were powder-burned and the entire charge was inside the skull. The physician said that death was probably instantaneous. He exhibited some gun wads that he took from her skull and stated that they were the same size as a twelve-gauge gun wad. The body was still warm when it was examined. A deputy sheriff picked up an empty gun shell which was lying near the body. It was a twelve-guage shell and was marked "new chief." There were signs of a struggle in the path and a considerable amount of blood was found there. The husband of the deceased testified that she had eighty-six dollars which she was accustomed to carrying in a purse in her corset. Her money and purse were missing when her body was found. He said he was notified of her death between 12 and 1 o'clock in the day time. The daughter of the deceased testified that her mother left home between 10 and 11 o'clock in the morning to go over to Mrs. Pearson's about half a mile distance. Her body was found in about three hundred yards of Pearson's house.

W. A Pearson testified: On the 29th day of November, 1912, my wife and I went over to the depot near our house and took the train for Little Rock about 10:30 o'clock in the morning. Our purpose in going there was to make a payment on a lot which we had bought from the Southern Trust Company. We made the payment and transacted some other business and got back home about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. When I got home my back door was broken open, my shotgun was gone and also a ten-pound bucket of lard, which had never been opened. My gun had my name on it. I also missed three gun shells.

The testimony of the wife of W. A. Pearson was substantially the same, and other witnesses testified that they saw them take the train about 10:30 o'clock in the morning on the day that Alice Turner was killed and that neither of them had a gun. An accountant for the Southern Trust Company testified that Pearson came into the Southern Trust Company and paid $ 46.50 on the day in question. The daughter of the deceased testified that they can hear the train stop and when it goes through from their house. That her mother did not leave home on the day she was killed until after the 10 o'clock train for Little Rock had gone by.

J. G. Shooks testified: I run a sawmill about three or four miles from the place where Alice Turner was killed. I remember the day she was killed, and on that morning about 9 or 10 o'clock I met the defendant, and straight through from the house at which I met him to the scene of the killing was about a mile and a half or two miles.

W. F. Hobbs, deputy sheriff, testified that he was born and raised in that neighborhood and that from the house Shooks was talking about where he met the defendant to where the killing occurred was about half a mile straight through. A second-hand store keeper at Sixth and Center streets, in the city of Little Rock, testified that he bought a shotgun from the defendant about 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the day that Alice Turner was killed. That he was not acquainted with the defendant but the defendant gave his name as W. A. Pearson and that name was on the gun. That the defendant limped a little when he went out. That the defendant was accompanied by another man. (Here W. A. Pearson is presented to the witness and witness testified that he was not the man who was with the defendant.) That the defendant at the time had a rabbit with him. The gun. is exhibited to the witness who identifies it. Another witness for the State testified that about 2 o'clock p. m. on the day of the killing the defendant sold a rabbit to a bartender in his presence. After having proved by the officers that the defendant voluntarily and of his own free will made confessions, W. H. Hobbs, one of the officers who was investigating the crime, testified:

Down at the city hall the negro said: "Mr. Hobbs, I will tell you everything; I have known you longer than any of the rest of the people here; I had rather tell you." He got down on his knees in front of me, and put his hands on my knee. I was sitting on a little stool. I said, "All right, commence." This is his language, as far as I can remember: "I went in Pearson's house, broke open the back door, went in and got a shotgun, and picked up some shells, I don't remember how many. I come out of the house, and come on down the path and met the Turner woman; I spoke to her. We sat down on the root of a little tree, where the rain had washed the dirt off the root. She had a lunch; I helped her eat her lunch. I then made a proposition to her, and offered her $1; I asked her for some, and she told me that she did not have to do it that cheap; that she had plenty of money, and she pulled out and showed me some money. I grabbed a $10 bill. We got to scuffling over the money, and I made up my mind to get it all. I grabbed it all, and stepped off and shot her. She hollored, 'Oh, Lordy, you shot me.' I broke and run; went through the woods, across the pike, went out by a spring, what we used to call Neuly Spring, down there at Lindsay's Park. Walked up the railroad track to Abeles mill, at the foot of Seventeenth street, and walked from there to Sixth and Center, and sold the gun to a pawnbroker."

He said he stopped at Sixth and Center, and bought a rabbit out of a wagon, stepped in and sold the gun to a pawnbroker and went from there down to Second and Scott, and sold the rabbit to a negro porter in a saloon there. He said that he got $51; he said he took the money home, and put it in the corner of the house, behind a table leg, in the kitchen, and set a quart bottle up against it. He said it was in a tobacco sack. I asked him if the money was there then, and he said it was. We went down in an automobile and found the table exactly like he said, and a quart bottle sitting by the table leg in the corner, but the money was not there. The statement he made to me was without promises, threats, coercion, and made by him voluntarily. I was sitting on one of the stools that we used for our Bertillion measurements, and he was sitting on the small one. He got down off the stool, on his knees, and volunteered, saying, "I will tell you everything." His brother was arrested at the time, and he told us his brother was innocent; that there was no one on earth knew anything about it except himself. He said he had started to the mill that morning, and met the owner of the mill, and worked about fifteen minutes, when the mill broke down.

A written confession of the defendant to substantially the same effect was also introduced in evidence. The defendant for himself testified:

I was arrested Tuesday night, on the 3d of December, about 7:30. They carried me down to the courthouse, but did not ask me any questions that night. Wednesday morning they took me over to the courthouse and questioned me until about noon about the killing of Mrs. Turner. I did not know anything about it, more than I heard from the folks that come to the inquest. I come to town the night I was arrested to see Scipio Jones, to have him find out about a warrant that I understood they had for me for carrying a pistol. I was in town on the day of the killing from about 10 or 11 o'clock until 2 o 'clock that evening. On Friday morning I started to Mr. Shooks' mill, where I had been working. I met him on the road, and asked him if the mill was running today. He told me that the mill was going to run, but that he had no place for me; I turned around and come back home, and brought my bucket back in which I had my dinner; I had a shotgun besides; I stayed around home until 10 o'clock, then came on down and caught the train at Sweet Home at 10:05. After I got to Little Rock I went down to the labor office, at Markham and Main, and inquired what kind of work the labor agent had. I went on down to Cumberland street, between Second and Markham, and stayed around town a considerable while; then I went out to Eleventh and Broadway, where my sister used to live, but she had moved; I came on down to Sixth and Center, where I bought a rabbit out of a wagon for a dime; I walked in the saloon, and was getting a drink, when Pearson walked in; he claimed that he had no money; that he had been paying off some debts. He had a breech-loader gun in his hand, and wanted to sell it to me for $2. I offered him a dollar for it, and he said that he would not take it; I told him that he ought to be able to get a dollar for it, and he told me that if I would get a dollar for it he would give me a quarter, and all I wanted to drink. He showed me his name engraved on the barrel. He went in with me in the pawnbroker's office, and I told the boy we wanted $1.50 for it. He asked whose gun it was, and I told him W. A. Pearson's gun. He said that he would give $1 for it, and that when we came back next Saturday we could get it back again by giving $1.50 for it. Pearson

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