Huddleston v. Commonwealth
| Decision Date | 29 September 1933 |
| Citation | 251 Ky. 172 |
| Parties | Huddleston v. Commonwealth. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
3. Criminal Law. — Presumption exists that jury followed court's admonition not to consider in competent testimony.
4. Criminal Law. — Motion to discharge jury, made at close of testimony, because of incompetent questions, not objected to when asked, and, when objected to, court told jury not to consider matter, held properly overruled.
5. Criminal Law. — Refusal to allow question answered is not ground for reversal, absent avowal of what witness would have stated.
6. Criminal Law. — Trial Court's discretion in excluding testimony as to trailing by bloodhounds is not ground for reversal, unless abused.
Appeal from Cumberland Circuit Court.
S.A. CARY for appellant.
BAILEY P. WOOTTON, Attorney General, and WILLIAM R. ATTKISSON, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
Affirming.
Homer Huddleston, Dennis Short, and Cam Scott were indicted in the Cumberland circuit court for the willful murder of Bill Short. The prosecution was dismissed by the commonwealth as to Dennis Short and Cam Scott. It then came on for trial as to Homer Huddleston; he was found guilty; and his punishment was fixed at imprisonment for life. He appeals.
It is insisted for appellant that the evidence is not sufficient to sustain a conviction. Dennis Short and Cam Scott testified on the trial for the commonwealth, and it is insisted that their evidence was not sufficiently corroborated to warrant a conviction under section 241 of the Criminal Code of Practice, which provides that a conviction cannot be had upon the testimony of an accomplice, unless corroborated by other evidence tending to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense, and the corroboration is not sufficient if it merely shows that the offense was committed and the circumstances thereof. This objection requires a statement of the facts shown by the evidence.
Wash Huddleston and Bill Short were two old men living not very far apart in Cumberland county. Homer Huddleston was the son of Wash Huddleston. He had some children but no wife, and was living at the home of Hunter Short, a son of Bill Short, who had married his sister and lived about three-fourths of a mile from Bill Short. Bill Short's wife had died, and Cam Scott was living with him. On May 29, 1932, Bill Short and others were at the home of Hunter Short, and that evening they put flowers upon the grave of Mrs. Bill Short. When they were gathering these flowers, Dennis Short, a son of Hunter Short, asked for one of the roses and stuck it on the front of his coat. When the sun was about a half hour high, Homer Huddleston and Dennis Short left the home of Hunter Short, and went out to a distillery operated by Homer Huddleston and got some whisky, and drank of it. They then went to the home of Bill Short, and there met Cam Scott, and the three were drinking together when Bill Short came up from Hunter Short's, having left there about a half hour after they left. Dennis Short and Cam Scott were young men about twenty years of age. Both testified that Bill Short told Cam Scott to let down the bars for the cows to come in, and, while Cam was doing this, Homer Huddleston drew his pistol and shot Bill Short twice besides firing other shots at him, and then proceeded to open his clothes and take off his person his money bag. They say that Homer then told them to say nothing about it, and the three left the body lying there in the road near the house and went to the home of Wash Huddleston, reaching there about 9 o'clock and staying there all night, sleeping in the same bed without taking their clothes off. The next morning a neighbor saw the body of Bill Short lying in the road. Notice was given, and an inquest was held.
In addition to the testimony of Dennis Short and Cam Scott as to how the shooting occurred, the commonwealth proved these facts: The two balls entered the chest of Bill Short and passed out at his back. They caused his death. A neighbor testifies to hearing two shots and then others. One of the balls was found there on the rock where the deceased had fallen. It was a ball from a .38 pistol. Dennis Short had a .38 pistol, and this was missing from his father's house after the shooting. The rose which Dennis Short had put in his coat the evening before, or one just like it, was found near the body. Bill Short had sold a farm not long before, and had received money for it. In his wife's lifetime she had made him a bag in which he carried his money attached to the belt, which he wore under his clothes. It was known in the neighborhood that he had three or four thousand dollars. When the body was found, the belt and bag were missing; his trousers had been cut open; and, in addition to the pistol wounds, he had been cut several times with a knife. About two or three weeks before the homicide, Homer Huddleston said to John Riley that he was going to follow his children to hell or have them; that he knew where $2,500 or more was; the man who had it was too stingy to spend it, and he was going to have some money; just let the damn birds whistle as lonesome as they want to.
Verna Capps testifies that on the evening after her father's body was found she was at the house. Homer was there, and motioned to Cam Scott to go with him, and they walked out to the place where the body was found on the road. They stopped at some lilac bushes, and she stepped in the back of the bushes and heard Homer say to Scott, "We are all right if they don't find that gun, but if they find that gun we are blowed up."
Herschel Riddle, who testified to hearing the shots about 800 yards from his house along about dark, also testified that he heard three men talking as they passed his house soon afterwards.
Charley Blythe...
To continue reading
Request your trial