Hurst v. State, 34757
| Decision Date | 23 September 1953 |
| Docket Number | No. 2,No. 34757,34757,2 |
| Citation | 78 S.E.2d 80,88 Ga.App. 798 |
| Parties | HURST v. STATE |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Emory L. Rowland, J. W. Claxton, Wrightsville, for plaintiff in error.
W. W. Larsen, Sol. Gen., Dublin, for defendant in error.
Syllabus Opinion by the Court.
Roosevelt Hurst (whom we shall call the defendant) was indicted by the grand jury for arson, and convicted. He made a motion for new trial on the general grounds only, which was overruled, and on this judgment assigns error. The evidence for the State, briefly but substantially, is as follows: Hurst and his wife separated in the month of May, 1952. They had five children. His wife went to the home of Vester Lee Walker (her sister) to live. Vester Lee lived on the place of Tom Raley. Both the women and the children were employed by Mr. Raley on the farm. On October 11 the defendant went to the house where his wife was living, before dark, and stood under a shed in the yard of the house until his wife and her sister came home from town after dark. On the night of the fire and before the defendant reached the shed in the yard of the sister-in-law's house, he met one George Braddy about one mile from home going toward the sister-in-law's home. Duke Golder swore that he came by the house just before dark, and the defendant was standing at a shelter in the yard. Vester Lee Walker testified that she saw him standing under the shelter in her yard and called to him about twice; that the defendant wouldn't answer, and she became frightened and went down to tell Mr. Raley (the owner of the house which burned, occupied by the tenant, Vester Lee Walker, the witness); and then that she (the defendant's wife) and the children went to a neighbors' to stay; that she locked the house and left two lamps, which were out and full of oil, in the house; that the house was burned that night; that the next morning after the fire she looked at a man's tracks where she had seen him standing the night before; that the heel on the right foot was run over; and that they were the defendant's tracks. The defendant went to the house of Ella Lee Glover, who lived about 1/4 to 1/2 mile away, about 9 o'clock on the night of the fire, and asked for matches. The fire occurred about 11 o'clock at night. He went to the house of another neighbor, Roger Lee Cannor, and asked for matches; and then went to the house of still another neighbor, Lester Johnson, and asked for matches, where he was given some, and about 25 or 30 minutes later the house was burning. The next morning after the fire, Mr. Raley swore that he went to the shed where two witnesses testified the defendant was seen standing the evening before, and tracked the man with the run-down right heel to the homes of the three neighbors where he had asked for matches, and then tracked him back to the door steps of the house which burned, and then to the edge of the cotton field where the two lamps belonging to Vester Lee Walker were found; and that both lamps were...
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Powell v. State, 68165
...indictment was in fact burned, that its cause was a criminal agency, and that the defendant was that criminal agency. Hurst v. State, 88 Ga.App. 798, 78 S.E.2d 80 (1953). The latter may be proved by circumstantial evidence. Reese v. State, 94 Ga.App. 387, 94 S.E.2d 741 (1956)." Murden v. St......
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Kennedy v. State
...burden is on the State to overcome the presumption that the burning occurred from providential or accidental cause." Hurst v. State, 88 Ga.App. 798, 799, 78 S.E.2d 80 (1953); Campbell v. State, 169 Ga.App. 112, 114, 312 S.E.2d 136 (1983). The phrases in question connote, or presuppose, that......
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Bragg v. State, 70066
...indictment was in fact burned, that its cause was a criminal agency, and that the defendant was that criminal agency. Hurst v. State, 88 Ga.App. 798, 78 S.E.2d 80 (1953). The latter may be proved by circumstantial evidence." Powell v. State, 171 Ga.App. 876(1), 321 S.E.2d 745 (1984). See al......
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Frost v. State, A91A0074
...incendiary origin and that the defendant was the guilty party. Lockhart v. State, 76 Ga.App. 289 (45 S.E.2d 698)." Hurst v. State, 88 Ga.App. 798, 799, 78 S.E.2d 80 (1953) "(dwelling house arson)." See Bragg v. State, 175 Ga.App. 640, 641(1), 334 S.E.2d 184 (1985) (first degree arson). The ......