Henry v. People

• Decision Date: 25 October 1902
• Citation: 198 Ill. 162,65 N.E. 120
• Parties: HENRY v. PEOPLE.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

198 Ill. 162

65 N.E. 120

HENRY

v.PEOPLE.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 25, 1902.

Error to circuit court, Pike county; Frank K. Dunn, Judge.

William Henry was convicted of murder, and brought error. Affirmed.W. E. Williams, Jefferson Orr, W. L. Coley, W. H. Crow, and Edwin Johnston, for plaintiff in error.

H. J. Hamlin, Atty. Gen., A. Clay Williams, State's Atty., Matthews & Grigsby, A. G. Crawford, and J. W. Stauffer, for the People.

This is an indictment for murder, found by the grand jury of Pike county at the November term, 1900, against the plaintiff in error, William Henry, and one Minnie Henry. Plaintiff in error, William Henry, and Minnie Henry were indicted jointly for the murder of one Charles Jennings on June 18, 1900. The case was tried at the November term, 1901, of the Pike county circuit court. The jury returned a verdict finding Minnie Henry not guilty, and finding the plaintiff in error, William Henry, guilty, and fixing his punishment at 21 years' imprisonment in the penitentiary. A motion for new trial was overruled, and sentence and judgment were rendered in accordance with the verdict. The present writ of error is sued out for the purpose of reversing such judgment.

The plaintiff in error, William Henry, was the brother-in-law of the deceased, Charles Jennings. Alice Jennings, the wife of Charles Jennings, was the sister of plaintiff in error. Minnie Henry was the daughter-in-law of plaintiff in error, being the wife of plaintiff in error's son Charles Henry. In June, 1900, plaintiff in error lived in Nebo, in Pike county. Charles Jennings lived upon a farm owned by his wife, Alice Jennings, situated about five miles southwest from Nebo, and about the same distance southeast of Pleasant Hill; Pleasant Hill being about five miles west of Nebo. Plaintiff in error owned a farm lying just north of and adjoining the farm of Charles Jennings and his wife, situated, as we understand the evidence, upon the road running northwest to Pleasant Hill. Upon this farm so owned by plaintiff in error and lying north of the Jennings farm, Charles Henry and his wife, Minnie Henry, lived; Charles Henry being a tenant of his father, and apparently working the farm under the direction of his father. There was a small house on the plaintiff in error's farm on the east side of the Pleasant Hill road, and about a quarter of a mile north or northwest from the house where Jennings and his wife lived on their farm. For some reason plaintiff in error and his sister, Alice Jennings, had not been on friendly terms for several years. He had not spoken to her for three years prior to June, 1900. Some ill feeling also existed between Alice Jennings and her niece by marriage, Minnie Henry. On Thursday, June 14, 1900, some cows belonging to Charles Henry strayed into a wheat field belonging to Charles Jennings, and being a part of the farm on which he lived with his wife. These cows trampled down or injured the wheat of Jennings, and were taken up by him and impounded or distrained. Minnie Henry went over to the Jennings farm after these cows, and while she was there some altercation occurred between her and her aunt-in-law, Alice Jennings. Upon that occasion Mrs. Jennings ordered Minnie Henry to leave her premises, because, as the former says, of abusive language used toward her by Minnie Henry. Minnie Henry swears that Mrs. Jennings called her a vile name, and set a dog on her, and drew a revolver on her; but Mrs. Jennings, while admitting that at the time she had a stick of wood in her hand, and her dog was by her side, says she did not set the dog on her, nor threaten to shoot her. Whatever may have been the actual fact as to what was said and done on Thursday, June 14th, the occurrence of that day was reported to plaintiff in error, William Henry, and aroused a feeling of anger in his breast against his sister and her husband.

On Saturday, June 16th, in the afternoon, Charles Jennings and his wife were in Nebo. They were together in a phaeton drawn by two horses. They rode up the main street, which ran north and south, until they came to a street running east and west, when Jennings turned his horses to the west and drove westward. At the corners where he turned to the westward there are two stores, both fronting east,-one, owned by a man named Turnbaugh, on the north side of the street running west; and the other, owned by a man named Marion, and located on the south side of the street running west. Plaintiff in error and his wife were at that time upon the porch of the store of Turnbaugh. When Jennings and his wife passed to the westward, plaintiff in error saw them. He came down from the porch, and ran toward the buggy or phaeton, calling upon Jennings to stop. The wife of plaintiff in error, standing by, caught him by the sleeve, and tried to restrain him, begging him to let them go. In her effort to stop her husband she tore the sleeve of his shirt. He replied, ‘I won't let them go.’ He tore himself loose from his wife, and hollered, ‘Hold on there, you damned son of a bitch!’ He was seen to stoop to the graveled street, as if reaching to pick up a rock, and followed some little distance to the west in the direction of the buggy or phaeton. As he followed, he used oaths, and exclaimed: ‘I'll see you. I'll get you. Go, God damn you, I'll get you yet.’ Jennings drove on, and stopped at the house of a man named Franklin, where he remained some 15 or 20 minutes, and then went to Pleasant Hill, reaching there late in the afternoon. When plaintiff in error found that Jennings refused to stop when he called to him, he finally returned to the store of Turnbaugh, which he had left in the manner already stated. While Charles Jennings, who is shown by the evidence to have been a weakly or sickly man, and to have weighed about 135 pounds, was in Pleasant Hill, he bought 10 cents' worth of cartridges, and, when asked by some one if he was going to kill anybody, said, ‘No,’ but that ‘he intended to defend himself if he was attacked.’ Charles Jennings then referred to the occurrence which had taken place just before in Nebo, and said that he was the person whom William Henry ‘was after.’ One witness says that Jennings stated to him that he did not know what was the matter with the plaintiff in error, unless some one had been telling him lies. He also said that it was not necessary for him and plaintiff in error to have any trouble, and made this remark to the person with whom he was talking, ‘But you know when Bill goes at a man he wants to go to cut or shoot,’ and the person to whom he was talking replied, ‘Yes, that's Bill.’

On the next day, Sunday, June 17th, the deceased, Charles Jennings, remained at home. The plaintiff in error, on Sunday morning, went down to the farm occupied by his son, Charles Henry. The proof tends to show that he did not then see Charles Henry, and returned to his home in Nebo. On Monday morning the deceased, Charles Jennings, having some wheat to sell, sent the same early in the morning to Pleasant Hill in a wagon. A little later, and between 7 and 8 o'clock, he started to Pleasant Hill in a phaeton, drawn by two horses, to look after the sale of the wheat which he had so sent forward. His wife, Alice Jennings, was in the buggy or phaeton with him, desiring to take a ride to Pleasant Hill. On the same Monday morning the plaintiff in error came down from Nebo with a horse and buggy to the farm occupied by his son Charles Henry and the latter's wife, Minnie Henry, lying, as above stated, just north of the Jennings farm. As Jennings and his wife drove towards the Charles Henry farm, where in a part of the yard plaintiff in error had hitched his horse and buggy, a meeting took place between the deceased, Charles Jennings, and the plaintiff in error, which resulted in the shooting of the former by the latter. As to what occurred in the roadway between the deceased, Charles Jennings, and the plaintiff in error, before the death of the former, there is a conflict in the testimony.

Alice Jennings, in her direct examination, when on the stand as a witness, testified as follows: ‘As we got in sight of Charley Henry's house, we saw Bill Henry come out of the house, in the road stooping over as if he were picking up something. I could not tell just at the time what he was picking up. He came on down the road to meet us, more of a run than a walk, I would call it. He would run a step or two and then walk fast. He came about eighty steps down the road to meet us. As he came in front of the horses, he threw a rock at us out of his right hand, grabbed one of the horses by the bridle bits, saying, ‘God damn your hearts to hell, you damned black sons of bitches.’He walked backward, cursing us all the while. My husband was pleading: ‘Now, Bill, I don't want to have any trouble with you. If you will only listen, I will explain.’ No, he would not listen. My husband came over that four or five times,-I don't know how many times,-until we got in front of Charley Henry's house, and then he stopped the horses. He let loose of the bridle bits, ran back, and grabbed the lines out of my husband's hands, and my husband said, ‘Bill, if you will only listen, I will explain.’ He said, ‘Where did them cows get on your corn at?’ My husband said, ‘They never got on my corn; they got on my wheat.’ Bill says, ‘Where in hell is your wheat?’ My husband says, ‘A little patch up on the hills by the corn.’ He says: ‘Oh, hell; bring me my shotgun; be God damned if I don't shoot you both.’ I looked up to see who would bring the gun, and saw Charley Henry's wife in the yard in front of the house. She went in and got the shotgun, and brought it to the buggy. He takes the gun with his left hand, dropped the lines with his right hand. As he dropped the lines, I grabbed them, and then he stepped back, and then he fired the shotgun. The horses sprang forward and run, and I heard him say, ‘Hold on there, God damn you, I want...