Jackson v. Commonwealth

• Decision Date: 08 December 1896
• Parties: Jackson v. Commonwealth.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

100 Ky. 239

Jackson v. Commonwealth.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

December 8, 1896.

APPEAL FROM CAMPBELL CIRCUIT COURT.

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L. J. CRAWFORD FOR APPELLANT.

L. J. CRAWFORD IN PETITION FOR REHEARING.

W. S. TAYLOR AND M. R. LOCKHART FOR APPELLEE.

JUDGE HAZELRIGG DELIVERED THE OPINION OF THE COURT.

The appellant was jointly indicted with one Alonzo Walling in the Campbell Circuit Court for the murder of Pearl Bryan, and on his separate trial was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged.

It will be necessary to submit only a brief summary of the facts disclosed in the voluminous record before us to render intelligible the various complaints urged on this appeal against the judgment of conviction.

On the morning of Saturday, February 1, 1896, the headless body of a woman was found on the farm of one Locke, near Newport, in Campbell county. Every effort to find the head proved futile, but the shoes the dead girl wore were marked ":Lewis & Hayes, Greencastle, Indiana," and this circumstance led to the identification of the body as that of Pearl Bryan, a young girl of that city. Her clothes were saturated with blood, particularly about the neck, and a large quantity of it was found on the ground near the neck, covering a circular spot some six or seven inches in diameter, and also a spot of similar kind some feet away. Extending near to or over this last named spot there were some privet brushes, the leaves of which were spattered with blood, and drops were discovered pending under the leaves, as though the blood had reached the under side of them by spurting from the neck, which it might do as disclosed by the testimony if the decapitation had taken place or been commenced at the spot near the bushes, and if the victim were alive at the time.

These and other circumstances led the authorities to proceed on the theory that the murder — for such it evidently appeared to be — occurred in Campbell county.

An autopsy disclosed that the girl was pregnant, and a healthy foetus, of some five months development, was found, which, in the opinion of experts, was probably alive, until the death of the mother. The inquiries which led to the identification developed the fact that appellant, Scott Jackson, a dental student at the Ohio Medical College, but who formerly lived at Greencastle, was probably the author of the girl's ruin.

It was established beyond question that Pearl Bryan, after trying without success certain remedies prescribed by the appellant, left home on the Monday preceding her death, ostensibly to go to Indianapolis to visit friends, but in fact to come to Cincinnati in order that appellant might in some way procure relief for her, and it was shown that when she arrived in the city, where she was a stranger, she applied to him, or to him and Walling, the roommate and intimate associate of Jackson, for the purpose indicated.

On several days succeeding her arrival the three Jackson, Walling and Pearl Bryan, were seen together in different parts of the city, though where she stayed during this time does not clearly appear.

By one witness, and by only one, does the Common-wealth directly connect the appellant and his associate Walling with the girl at about the time she must have been murdered. This witness, a negro, George H. Jackson, testifies that at about 1 o'clock on the night of Friday, the 31st (or rather the morning of February 1st), he was employed to drive, and did drive, a hack or cab from Cincinnati across to Newport, and out to a point near where the body was subsequently found, and was accompanied by Walling, who rode on the seat with him, and by appellant, who was in the interior of the vehicle with another person whom he could not see, but whom he took to be a woman in distress, etc.

This witness was discredited by proof seriously affecting his reputation for truth and veracity and by other circumstances, though it is fair to say that he appears to be corroborated in some material respects. To discard his testimony entirely is by no means to affect the State's case against the prisoner.

It is shown that on the Wednesday preceding the murder the accused bought some seventeen grains of cocaine, and an analysis of the girl's stomach discloses that cocaine had been administered to her. He is shown to have had possession after the girl's death of the valise belonging to her, on the inside of which were blood stains and in which were also found some strands of hair, believed to have come off her head, from its color, etc., and also dirt or mud corresponding in microscopical appearance with that where the body was found.

On Jackson's pants, found, however, in Walling's locker, were found blood stains, and on the knee was also found some earth which, under the microscope and by chemical analysis, is found identical with the earth found at the point where the body was discovered. His coat is also found in the sewer, where he admits having thrown it, stained with blood. He is found in possession of her clothing, which he attempted to dispose of. He admits that he attempted to get rid of the valise by throwing it in the river, and by attempting to place it on an outgoing train.

There is produced and he admits writing a letter to his friend and associate, one Wood, in which he asks Wood to write in Pearl's name to her parents from Chicago, or elsewhere, saying she was tired of living at home and was at the place of writing, and concludes with these words: "Get the letter off without a second's delay, and burn this at once. Stick by your old chum, Bill, and I will help you out the same way, or some other way, some time."

The theory of the defense is, and the accused so testified, that Wood was the author of the girl's misfortune, and sent her to Cincinnati, where he had made an arrangement to turn her over to Walling, who was to perform, or had performed, an abortion. Appellant says that he last saw the girl at noon of Wednesday, and affects not to have inquired of Walling thereafter of the success or failure of the plan, or to have known anything of her whereabouts; that he knew nothing or suspected nothing wrong until while at supper with Walling, on Saturday evening, he read a newspaper account of the finding of a headless body on the Locke farm, and at once had a presentiment that "this was Walling's case." He discovered from Walling's conduct on that occasion, and from what Walling confessed to him, that his suspicion was well founded.

He then became panic-stricken, and attributes to this mental condition his subsequent conduct in helping Walling to dispose of the dead girl's effects and in writing the damaging letter to Wood. All this he testifies was done at the instance of Walling, and while he was under Walling's influence and in the mental condition named.

This recital, without an elaboration of the proof, some of which is wholly at variance with the theory of the defense, serves to show that the facts in evidence conduced to establish the guilt of the accused, and further than this we are not authorized to examine the testimony, being confined exclusively, under the express language of the law, to a review of errors of law appearing of record, and then only when they are such as to affect the substantial rights of the accused.

By his demurrer and motion in arrest of judgment the appellant first raises the question of the sufficiency of the indictment. This instrument is as follows: "The grand jury of Campbell county, in the name and by the authority of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, accuses Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling of the crime of murder committed as follows, to-wit: The said Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling on the — day of ________, 1896, before the finding of this indictment, in the county aforesaid, did willfully, feloniously and with malice aforethought, kill and murder Pearl Bryan by the one or the other, the said Scott Jackson or Alonzo Walling, with a knife or other sharp instrument, cutting the throat of the said Pearl Bryan so that she did then and there die, the other being then and there present, aiding and abetting the same, the exact manner whereof is unknown to the grand jurors, and which did the cutting, Scott Jackson or Alonzo Walling, or which aided and abetted the same is unknown to the jurors, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth of Kentucky."

It is urged that this indictment is not direct and certain as regards the party charged, but charges in the alternative that one party or the other committed the offense, when it is permissible only to charge in the alternative the different modes or means of committing an offense.

The indictment, however, charges directly and certainly that Jackson did kill and murder Pearl Bryan, first by himself cutting her throat with a knife, or secondlyby aiding and abetting Walling in doing so.

The cutting by himself is one mode, and the aiding and abetting Walling whilst he did the cutting is another mode of committing the murder, and these modes and means may be charged in the alternative.

The indictment is sufficient, and its accuracy and conciseness of expression is to be commended.

Prior to the trial the appellant sought to prevent the sheriff of the county from performing his usual duties, and for that purpose filed his affidavit stating that that officer had taken an unusual and remarkable interest in bringing about a conviction of the accused, and had frequently denounced him and his co-defendant, Walling, as the guilty parties, and had devoted his whole time to hunting up evidence against them, and had endeavored by threats of punishment to force the defendants to confess to the crime. The court's refusal to relieve the sheriff furnishes another ground of complaint.

Unquestionably if it should be shown in any case to the satisfaction of the court that a sheriff was a "party" or was "interested" in the proceeding (Civil...