Hill v. State

Citation24 So.2d 737,199 Miss. 254
Decision Date11 February 1946
Docket Number36054.
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
PartiesHILL v. STATE.

J. F. Dean, of Senatobia, for appellant.

Greek L. Rice, Atty. Gen., and R. O. Arrington, Asst. Atty. Gen for appellee.

L. A. SMITH, Sr., Justice.

Appellant was indicted and convicted of the murder of Robert White in the Circuit Court of Tate County and sentenced to life imprisonment, the jury having been unable to agree on the punishment. This is the second appearance of this case in this court. the appellant having been proviously convicted appealed, and the cause reversed for reasons not now here present. Hill v. State, 196 Miss. 503, 16 So.2d 626.

Upon this present appeal, the appellant argues that the verdict of the jury must be based upon the testimony of Robert Thomas alleged to have been thoroughly discredited and to be unworthy of belief, and the verdict is due to prejudice and passion and not to credible evidence showing the guilt of appellant beyond a reasonable doubt. However, the argument for appellant is principally an attack upon the testimony of the State's witness, Robert Thomas, and upon his credibility, and the effect thereof upon the verdict of the jury. Discrepancies between the testimony of Thomas in the instant trial on remand and the first trial of the cause are emphasized, as well as his impeachment by a number of witnesses because of his alleged bad general reputation for truth and veracity,--several witnesses stating that they would not believe him on oath.

The contention of the State is that Robert White, the deceased and his wife had been having trouble about appellant and that White and his wife, Maybelle, had separated. White, the deceased, sent to Senatobia for witness Thomas to come and take him to the home of a certain woman, Katie Butler, so that he could see his wife. Thomas agreed, and White and he in Thomas' car, with Hill Walton also, made the journey. Upon arrival at the home of Katie Butler, appellant and Maybelle were there, also Katie Butler and her small children. Thomas also testified that, on Monday night preceding the Wednesday of the killing, he had been at Katie's house and found appellant and Maybelle in the bed together. On the occasion here, at the time of the killing, Thomas claimed that he told Maybelle, after going into the house, that her husband wanted to speak to her and that she was sitting in appellant's lap, and that Maybelle replied 'If Robert White wants to see me I reckon he knows where I am.' Thereupon, Thomas says he turned around and went back to his car, which was parked in the road in front of the house at the foot of a declivity. Appellant, according to Thomas, came out of the house behind him, which was unknown to him until he slid down the declivity and in doing so turned around and saw appellant behind him. It was raining and early in the night. Appellant was then about twelve feet from the car, at which were Robert White and Hill Walton, standing. Robert White, the deceased, spoke to appellant and said, 'Billy, I want to speak to you a minute,' to which appellant replied 'All right,' and wheeled and went to shooting him, according to the version of Thomas. Robert White was unarmed. After the shooting, appellant ran east, and Robert White was carried to the doctor. He died as a result of this shot a few days later.

According to the defense, after the separation of Maybelle and Robert White, Maybelle took refuge in the home of Katie Butler. There was no intimacy between Maybelle and appellant, appellant had not visited her at the home of Katie, Thomas did not see Maybelle and appellant in the bed together, nor was she sitting in his lap when Thomas came into the house and delivered the message from her husband on the night of the killing. However, appellant was there on the fatal night when Thomas entered and told Maybelle someone out there wanted to see her and she replied 'Here I is in here.' Maybelle was sitting on the bed, appellant and Katie Butler were sitting in the middle of the floor. After delivery of the message, Thomas went out of the door, but he returned quickly with Robert White and Hill Walton. They asked where appellant was, and were told that he was leaving and that they had passed him on the porch as he left. On leaving her house, Katie Butler said, appellant went west and she does not know what happened except that she heard some shooting.

Maybelle White denied that there had been any improper relations between her and appellant, and stated that he stopped at Katie's house on the Wednesday evening of the killing merely in order to get out of the rain and not to see her, and she was not sitting in his lap. She heard Thomas call appellant twice after his departure from the house, and the next thing she heard was the shooting. Maybelle and Katie were corroborated by William Butler, a son of Katie, who further testified that when Billy Hill left his mother's home, Robert White, the deceased, Robert Thomas and Hill Walton went out behind him, and all three of them followed appellant up the road. Later, he heard the shooting in that direction, some distance from the car. He denied that appellant went to the car at all.

Hill Walton was in Arkansas at the time of the trial from which this appeal comes here, but there was an agreement that the defendant 'also introduce the record of testimony of the former trial of this case, it being agreed that the record states all testimony correctly.' So that we find from the record of his testimony in the former trial his version of what happened. He said that Robert White, the deceased, told Robert Thomas to go and tell his wife to come out where the car was parked and that Robert went into the house, and on his return appellant followed behind him, and that when appellant reached the road where the car was, he pulled out his pistol and went to shooting deceased, who was doing nothing to him whatever, but was merely standing by the car, and was unarmed. He said he did not go into the house and the first he saw of appellant on that occasion...

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17 cases
  • Brown v. State
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • 13 d4 Fevereiro d4 2014
    ...as testimonial defects of perception, memory, and sincerity.” Jones v. State, 381 So.2d 983, 989 (Miss.1980); see also Hill v. State, 199 Miss. 254, 24 So.2d 737 (Miss.1946). The photographs admitted included pictures of the ransacked house, the broken door-frame, McFarland's bloodied head,......
  • Chinn v. State
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • 9 d1 Abril d1 1973
    ...and that under our system the jury were the sole judges of the weight of the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses. Hill v. State, 199 Miss. 254, 24 So.2d 737. (242 Miss. at 169, 134 So.2d at In McLelland v. State, 204 So.2d 158 (Miss.1967), we stated: We have repeatedly held that t......
  • McLelland v. State
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • 6 d1 Novembro d1 1967
    ...of accused. Cobb v. State, 235 Miss. 57, 108 So.2d 719 (1959); Ivey v. State, 206 Miss. 734, 40 So.2d 609 (1949); Hill v. State, 199 Miss. 254, 24 So.2d 737 (1946). It is not for this Court to pass upon the credibility of witnesses and where the evidence justifies the verdict it must be acc......
  • Campbell v. State
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • 21 d1 Maio d1 1973
    ...of accused. Cobb v. State, 235 Miss. 57, 108 So.2d 719 (1959); Ivey v. State, 206 Miss. 734, 40 So.2d 609 (1949); Hill v. State, 199 Miss. 254, 24 So.2d 737 (1946). It is not for this Court to pass upon the credibility of witnesses and where the evidence justifies the verdict it must be acc......
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