Jones v. State

• Decision Date: 05 March 1934
• Docket Number: 31107
• Citation: 169 Miss. 292,152 So. 879
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: JONES v. STATE

152 So. 879

169 Miss. 292

JONES v. STATE

No. 31107

Supreme Court of Mississippi

March 5, 1934

Division B

Suggestion Of Error Overruled March 19, 1934.

APPEAL from circuit court of Forrest county, HON. W. J. PACK, Judge.

Eddie Jones was convicted of murder, and he appeals. Affirmed.

Affirmed.

D. W Draughn, of Hattiesburg, for appellant.

At the time of the killing there were three persons on the porch of Alberta Magee's house, as follows: Emmett Lyles, Carrie Magee, and Eddie Jones. As far as this record shows all these people were friendly and on the best of terms in every way. Carrie McGee received a pistol shot from which she afterward died. Taking the entire record together it does appear that there is no malice aforethought on the part of Eddie Jones to show that he murdered the deceased.

W. D. Conn, Jr., Assistant Attorney-General, for the state.

This is a case where the presumption of malice cannot be indulged in, because the surrounding facts of the homicide have been apparently fully developed by eyewitnesses.

Smith v. State, 161 Miss. 430, 137 So. 96; Winchester v. State, 163 Miss. 462, 142 So. 454; Batiste v. State (Miss.), 147 So. 318.

Malice may be suddenly formed and no particular period of deliberation is required to make a killing deliberate and malicious.

Williams v. State, 163 Miss. 475, 142 So. 471.

OPINION

Ethridge, P. J.

The appellant was convicted for the murder of one Carrie Magee and sentenced to life imprisonment, from which this appeal is prosecuted.

It is contended that the evidence is insufficient to support a conviction for murder.

The record shows that the appellant, Eddie Jones, went to the home of the deceased, who lived with her mother, displayed a pistol, and the mother remonstrated with him and ordered him out of the house because there were four little children there and she was afraid some of them might be shot. According to her testimony, the appellant said somebody might be shot before daylight, and that he went on to the gallery or porch where the deceased and her fiance were talking; and according to Emmett Lyle, the girl's fiance, the appellant shot her, and she died the following morning. The witness, Emmett Lyle, stated that he had been to the country club caddying, and came by the deceased's house, as was his custom, went in the front door, picked up the baby and went on down Scooba street. He said he came back and called her to get her baby, and she said, "You forgot your shirt," which he had left there to be washed; that he went in and she went in on the gallery where Eddie Jones was standing, and witness followed her, and found Eddie Jones holding her, having pulled out his pistol. Witness stated that he said "Eddie, is that gun loaded.' and he said 'No, it ain't loaded . . . take it boy,' and I said 'yes it is, and I just pushed it back,'" saving he did not want it. He further stated that "Eddie had my hand like this (indicating) . . . and by that time he fired and she said 'I'm shot' . . . and walked over to me and put her head on my shoulder, and I went and got Rev. Shoemake and we went and put her in the car and carried her to Laurel and I stayed with her in the hospital until she died."

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