Jones v. State, 40247

• Decision Date: 11 June 1956
• Docket Number: No. 40247,40247
• Citation: 228 Miss. 458,88 So.2d 91
• Parties: Willie D. JONES v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 91

88 So.2d 91

228 Miss. 458

Willie D. JONES v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 40247.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

June 11, 1956.

John W. Barbee, F. C. Holmes, Jr., W. E. Wilroy, Boyce Lee Garner, Hernando, for appellant.

Joe T. Patterson, Atty. Gen., By J. R. Griffin, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

ETHRIDGE, Justice.

Appellant, Willie D. Jones, was convicted in the Circuit Court of De Soto County, for the murder of George Fritz, and sentenced to death.

I.

Fritz, a seventy-six year old, unmarried white man, operated a small grocery and general merchandise store and filling station near the Mississippi-Tennessee state line, in De Soto County, Mississippi, on U. S. Highway 61. On the morning of April 1, 1955, he was killed by being struck on the head with some kind of blunt instrument, between the hours of 7 and 7:30 a. m. He lived in the back of the store. Mattie Evans lived one-half mile from the store, and went there that morning shortly after seven o'clock to get her newspaper. She discovered Fritz in the store slumped to his left and sitting in a rocking chair with his hat, glasses and newspaper on the floor. Blood was streaming from his body. He had been badly beaten and was unconscious. As Mattie was running out of the store to call for help, a neighbor, C. C. Mauldin, was approaching the store in his car. She told Mauldin what she had found, and after looking, Mauldin went for help. He returned with Guy Brown, another neighbor.

Brown testified that he first went to the store with an employee named Shelton around 7 a. m. that morning to get his newspaper, and that appellant Jones was there at that time sitting on a bench on the front porch. The store faced east and was located about 50 feet west of Highway 51 which runs north and south. Brown said that no one else was at the store, other than Fritz and Jones, when he went there at 7 a. m.; that Jones was carrying a small cloth sack, apparently made out of 'ducking', but he did not know its contents. Brown stayed at the store about five minutes. While there, appellant asked Brown if he had any work for him to do as a tractor driver, and Brown replied he would see him when he was ready for some work. When he left about 7:05 a. m., only Fritz and appellant were at the store. Brown said that when he returned to the store with Mauldin, it was about 7:25 a. m., and appellant was not there. It had been discovered that Fritz had been badly beaten. Brown sent Fred Flinn, a Negro, to the Sanders house nearby where appellant was staying with his grandparents, to tell appellant that he wanted to see him, but he did not return with Flinn. 'The cash drawer and all was open' in the store, and the cash drawer had been robbed. According to this witness, Fritz must have been killed between 7:05 and 7:25 a. m. However, Mauldin said that he went to the store at 7:30.

Fred Flinn lived near the Fritz store. He said that appellant had worked around that vicinity for five months, living with his grandparents, Enoch and Mary Alice Sanders, about one-half mile northwest of the store, just inside the Tennessee line. Flinn arrived at the store after 7:30 that morning, and Mauldin, Brown and Mattie Evans were already there. Pursuant to Brown's request, he went to the Sanders house to see appellant around 8 a. m. Jones was sitting in the kitchen eating. Flinn told him that Brown wanted him to come over to the store, to which Jones replied that 'Brown did not want to know anything about him. What did he want with him?' Appellant never returned to the store.

M. A. Dowell, a bricklayer, had lived in the store with George Fritz eight to nine months. He said that he left to go to work that morning around five to ten minutes before 7 o'clock, and Fritz was then in the back room washing dishes. As he left, he noticed that Willie Jones was standing on the porch. He had been there for ten minutes. When appellant first arrived he came in the store and warmed his hands by the stove. He did not notice anyone else. Appellant had on army coveralls with a deep pocket, and a paper bag in the left pocket was twisted around, but Dowell did not know its contents.

Dr. William W. Tribby, a pathologist at the Methodist Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee where Fritz died on the afternoon of April 1, testified that he performed an autopsy on the body. The deceased had multiple injuries, including several fractures of the skull, multiple contusions of the brain, glandular hemorrhages, and lacerations of the face and scalp. Dr. Tribby said that the multiplicity of the wounds led him to the opinion that it was a blunt instrument which caused Fritz' death. Photographs of deceased were introduced in evidence. They reflected that he had received a terrible beating, with multiple blows around the head. Appellant's counsel asked Dr. Tribby whether the deep lacerations could have been made by Fritz' falling on a sharp object, and his answer was in the affirmative. However, this reply must be interpreted in its context. It would have been impossible for Fritz to have received the blows he did by a fall. Moreover, he was still in the rocking chair when he was found that morning. Dr. Tribby concluded that Fritz died directly from blows on the head.

Robin O. Cotten, a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, also testified for the State. He and two other agents arrested appellant in Memphis on the next afternoon, Saturday, April 2, 1955. He denied any connection with Fritz' death. On April 4, Monday, Cotten and two other agents, and Sheriff Elmore of De Soto County, Mississippi, talked again with appellant, and he again denied that he was guilty. During this period, appellant was in the Shelby County, Tennessee, jail in Memphis, being held on a federal charge of interstate flight to avoid prosecution for murder. On Thursday, April 7, appellant gave on oral and written confession that he killed Fritz.

There was a preliminary hearing on the issue of the admissibility of the confession, in the absence of the jury. The only witness who testified on this preliminary hearing was Cotten. He said that when appellant was interviewed on April 7 and the confession was given, he was present, along with Sheriff Elmore of De Soto County, and John Carlisle, a Lieutenant of the Homicide Division, Sheriff's office of Shelby County, Tennessee, and that Joel P. Walker, Jr., County Attorney of De Soto County, were there part of the time. On the preliminary hearing, Cotten testified in detail that the confession was free and voluntary. He was cross-examined by one of the appellant's counsel. At the close of Cotten's testimony, appellant made a motion to exclude the confession on the ground that it was not free and voluntary. This motion was overruled. The three persons who signed as witnesses to the written confession were Cotten, Elmore and Carlisle. It is as follows:

'Memphis, Tennessee

'April 7, 1955

'I, Willie D. Jones, make the following free and voluntary statement to Robin O. Cotten, known to me as a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and to Sheriff Jack J. Elmore, De Soto County, Mississippi, and to Deputy Sheriff John L. Carlisle, Shelby County, Tennessee. No threats or promises have been made to me to cause me to make this statement. I have been advised of my right to have a lawyer, and I have been told that anything I say may be used against me in a Court of law.

'I am 38 years of age and was born April 10, 1916, at Coldwater, Miss.

'I have finished 6 years in school.

'About 6:00 A.M. on Friday April 1, 1955 I left Memphis, Tennessee on the Greyhound bus and arrived at Mr. George Fritz store on highway 61 at the Tennessee-Mississippi State line about 7:00 A.M

'When I arrived at the store, Mr. Fritz was alone in the store. I walked over to the meat box and looked inside and I wanted to buy some pok chops. Mr. Fritz was sitting in a rocking chair near the drink box. He was facing south. I reached in the drink box and took out a double cola. I had already bought a rum crook cigar from Mr. Fritz and I had paid him for the double cola and the cigar.

'I kept standing in front of the meat box and I believe it was about 3 minutes.

'Mr. Fritz was still sitting in the rocking chair and he looked around at me and asked me what I was standing up there waiting on. I told him I was looking in the meat box and he said 'you ought to be done made up your damn mind by now.' He also said 'get the hell on out of here.' When Mr. Fritz said this, I was standing about 2 or 3 steps to the right of him. I was close to the meat box then. It made me mad when Mr. Fritz told me to get out and I had the double cola in my hand and then I turned the bottle over and grabbed the neck of the bottle in my right hand and stepped behind Mr. Fritz and hit him on the side of the head. I drew back and hit him again somewhere on the head. I hit him once or twice again on the head and left out the front door. Just before I left, I grabbed 3 or 4 cigars and put them in my pants pocket. I did not put my hands on Mr. Fritz and when I left the store, he was still sitting in the chair. I went up a gravel road just north of Mr. Fritz store and about 100 yards from the store, I crossed a wire fence and threw the bottle in a thicket.

'I would also like to state that before I hit Mr. Fritz I saw Mr. Guy Brown in the store, and I also saw a white man and a colored man I did not know. These two men heard Mr. Fritz tell me 'you ought to be done made up your damn mind by now.' These persons are the only ones I saw in the store on this morning.

'After I had thrown the bottle away, I went home and washed my hands and face and ate breakfast. While I was eating breakfast, Fred Flinn came to my house and said Mr. Guy Brown wanted to see me. I had asked Mr. Brown for a job at the store just before I hit Mr. Fritz.

'I then pulled off my coveralls and put my overshoes on and walked to the highway and caught a ride towards...