Hays v. State
| Decision Date | 11 February 1914 |
| Citation | 164 S.W. 841 |
| Parties | HAYS v. STATE. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Appeal from District Court, Tarrant County; James W. Swayne, Judge.
M. M. Hays was convicted of manslaughter, and he appeals. Reversed.
Lattimore, Cummings, Doyle & Bouldin, W. M. W. Splawn, and Tom Bradley, all of Ft. Worth, for appellant. John W. Baskin, Co. Atty., and A. J. Baskin, both of Ft. Worth, and C. E. Lane, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Appellant was convicted of manslaughter; his punishment being assessed at five years' confinement in the penitentiary.
The theory of the state was that appellant, being an employé of the railroad, while in the discharge of his duties permitted some cars to be pilfered, and for this reason was discharged. It is further the theory of the state that on account of this he harbored ill will and bad feeling towards the deceased, Boswell, who seems to have been in charge of that particular department of railway service. There is evidence showing that appellant felt sore and outraged over his discharge. The theory of the defendant is that his 16 year old daughter was sent by his wife to see the deceased with a view of getting her father, appellant, reinstated. When she approached deceased, he requested her to go with him to his uptown office. She did so, and, as they were ascending the flight of steps leading to the office, he told her that, if she would submit her person to him, he would reinstate her father. She became outraged, and, having declined to accede to his proposition, went home, and informed her mother of what had occurred. Her mother subsequently over the telephone informed appellant of what the daughter had said. The girl herself did not inform her father. Subsequently to being so informed by his wife, he procured a gun, went to the office of the deceased, and said to him that he had "taken bread and meat from my family and deprived me of making a living for them," and appellant testified, in addition, he had sought to ruin his family; that deceased got up and started in the direction of his private office, which was nearby, and appellant shot him.
1. When the case was called for trial, appellant sought a continuance for the testimony of his wife, who, it is shown, was physically unable to attend the trial, and about this there seems to be no question. He desired to prove by her the fact that she had communicated to him what the girl had said, and also that the girl had made the communication to her, and further that appellant's mind was very much excited and outraged on account of these communications. We are of the opinion that this application should have been granted. It was the first application, no question about the materiality of the testimony, and of the inability of the witnesses to attend the trial. While the girl testified that she communicated to her mother the insulting conduct by the deceased, and appellant testified that his wife had informed him of it, yet the absent witness would have corroborated both witnesses, as well as shown the effect of these communications upon the defendant in regard to the...
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Long v. State
...who was not present in court. Chester v. State, 23 Tex.App. 577, 5 S.W. 125 (1887). Chronologically progressing, in Hays v. State, 73 Tex.Cr.R. 58, 164 S.W. 841 (1914) this Court reversed a murder conviction because the trial court admitted into evidence two written witness' statements as o......
- Dean v. State
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Dean v. State
...625; Fannie v. State, 101 Miss. 380, 38 So. 2; Bell v. State, 72 Miss. 507, 17 So. 232; Shepherd v. U.S., 54 U.S. S.Ct. 22; Hayes v. State, 73 Tex. 58, 164 S.W. 841; White State, 136 So. 420. Certain hypothetical questions propounded by the counsel for the state to medical experts were not ......
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Wade v. State
...282, 143 S. W. 1157, the deceased said: "Tell my poor mother that I am going to die like a man; that a coward shot me." In Hays' Case, 73 Tex. Cr. R. 58, 164 S. W. 841, the declaration to his wife that he had made ample provision for her, had done the best he could, was held of a harmful na......