Johnson v. State

• Decision Date: 18 November 1903
• Citation: 77 S.W. 15
• Parties: JOHNSON v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

77 S.W. 15

JOHNSON v. STATE.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

November 18, 1903.

Appeal from District Court, Leon County; J. M. Smither, Judge.

Lula Johnson was convicted of murder, and appeals. Affirmed.

Howard Martin, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

BROOKS, J.

Appellant was convicted for the murder of her child, Essie Rigsby, and her punishment assessed at confinement in the penitentiary for life.

The first ground of the motion for new trial is that the evidence fails to clearly establish that the dead body, or portions of the dead body, found in Kechi creek, was the body, or portions of the body, of Essie Rigsby, alias Essie Johnson, the person alleged to have been killed by defendant. The evidence, as contained in the statement of facts, is substantially as follows: The justice of the peace testified that he found the remains of a child that looked like a negro about a year and a half or two years old in the creek. Witness saw parts of the skull and the legs and arms. The skin of the child was a yellow color, as if bleached by lying in the water. He could not tell its sex. Mat Brown testified that some time in June, 1899, and prior to the finding of a child in Kechi creek, in Leon county, defendant came to her house, carrying in her arms her baby named Essie Rigsby. Defendant reached witness' house about 10 o'clock in the morning. The baby was about two years old. It had a hat on its head. Defendant did not remain at witness' house but a few minutes, and then left, carrying the baby in her arms, going in the direction of said creek, where witness afterwards saw the remains of a dead child. Defendant was gone from the house about an hour or an hour and a half, when she again came to witness' house, but defendant did not then have her baby. Witness asked her what she had done with her baby, and she replied she had given it to its father, Tom Rigsby. Witness noticed that defendant had the hat the baby had on when she first came to her house. It was about a mile from witness' house to the creek where the baby was found. It was the next week after defendant was at witness' house that the dead child was found. Witness has not seen the child since defendant was at her house. Defendant's child was a black child. Witness could tell the sex of the baby found. "Have never seen deceased since the day her mother had her at witness' house, unless that was her baby in the creek. Don't know that defendant drowned the child." Eliza Butler testified that she saw defendant on Kechi creek on the day her child was afterwards found in the creek. Saw no one with defendant. She had something in her hand. Never noticed what it was. Witness was working that day in the field near the creek, and walked down to the creek to get a drink of water. Knew defendant's child, but have not seen it since the remains of the child were found in the creek. Charley Dixon testified that, "after it was reported in the neighborhood defendant's child was missing, defendant came in the field where her mother, Fannie Johnson, and I were working, and spoke to us, and said, `I hear you are all trying to send me to the penitentiary about my child.' I said, `No, Lula, we are not trying to send you anywhere, but your child is said to be missing, and the people suspect you destroyed it.' She [defendant] said she had not destroyed her child; that she had given it to its father, Tom Rigsby. I then told her to go at once and get her child, and prove that she was innocent. Soon after this, defendant was arrested, and the remains of a colored child was found in Kechi creek. I went to the creek, and pulled the child out. It had a piece of plow tied around its neck, and was in water about six inches deep. The child was considerably decomposed, but some of its skin was...