Keith v. State

• Citation: 61 N.E. 716, 157 Ind. 376
• Case Date: November 01, 1901
• Court: Supreme Court of Indiana

157 Ind. 376
61 N.E. 716

KEITH
v.
STATE.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

Nov. 1, 1901.

Appeal from circuit court, Gibson county; O. M. Welborn, Judge.

Joseph D. Keith was convicted of murder, and appeals. Affirmed.

[61 N.E. 717]

Posey & Chappell and Chas. W. Armstrong, for appellant. W. L. Taylor, Atty. Gen., C. C. Hadley, Merrill Moores, Thomas W. Lindsey, and Wm. Espenschied, for the State.

BAKER, J.

Appellant is under sentence of death for murder. The only assignment presented in briefs and oral argument is that the court erred in denying appellant's motion for a new trial.

The sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict is questioned. The state produced witnesses whose testimony went to establish these facts and circumstances: In the autumn of 1899, appellant, a farmer in Warrick county, about 40 years old, married, living with his wife and children, began a liaison with the deceased, Nora Kifer, daughter of a neighboring farmer, about 18 years old, unmarried. In December they lived together two or three days at a hotel in Evansville, in Vanderburg county, some 20 miles from appellant's home. From this time until April following, deceased stayed mainly in Evansville, sometimes in a brothel. During this period appellant paid out considerable money to her and on her account. Deceased was not discreet, and her intimacy with appellant became current gossip in the home neighborhood. It reached the ears of appellant's wife and caused trouble. Appellant also became fearful of a threatened action by deceased for her seduction. On Saturday evening, March 31st, deceased returned home from Evansville. On Monday appellant sought to see her, but failed. On Tuesday appellant sent her a note by his son Jesse, a lad in his teens. She destroyed the note, but, from the testimony of Jesse, who helped deceased decipher it, and from subsequent declarations of appellant, it read, “Lora, meet me at the bridge at dark.” Deceased instructed the lad to tell his father, “All right.” In the late afternoon she donned her best clothes, rather gaudy and easily described, and started for the bridge. (This bridge crosses an old canal in a valley where darkness falls rapidly after the sun descends behind the adjacent hills.) She was seen to reach and pace back and forth upon the bridge at dusk. She did not leave either east or west along the road. South of the bridge is a wood. Adjoining this is a field, in which, near the fence, lies an abandoned well, full of water to within a few feet of the surface, fenced off from the field with rails, overgrown with briars and bushes. That night of Tuesday, April 3d, was the last time that Nora Kifer was seen alive. About 11 o'clock that night neighbor Hedges saw appellant approaching his home along the road leading from the direction of the bridge and old well. Upon seeing Hedges, appellant stepped from the middle of the road over to the fence. This was of pickets about four feet high. Appellant failed to climb over, but skirted along the fence, with averted gaze, until he had passed Hedges. Hedges accosted appellant, but he neither replied nor looked up. April 9th the mother of deceased received a letter, postmarked at Evansville on April 8th, reading: “Dear Mother: I start this evening for Schicago on a trip. I May be gone three months and mite six with a friend. I expect To have a fine Trip. Do not be uneasy about me. From your Dauter, Lora.” Appellant was accustomed to call deceased “Lora.” The writing of the letter and envelope was identified as appellant's. From this time until May 22d appellant spoke to nearly every one he met about the Kifers' receiving letters from their daughter, that she was in a sporting house either at Evansville or Paducah or St. Louis, and that, if she told lies on people around Evansville like she had on him, she would be found in the creek with a stone around her neck. Finally the father of deceased said to the appellant that Nora had not been heard from; that a letter purporting to be from her had been received, but that it was in a man's handwriting; that plenty of men would swear whose writing it was; and that he proposed to search for his daughter, and find her if alive. On the night of May 22d William Blackman was returning from Evansville. About five miles from the canal bridge, about an hour after dark, he met a covered buggy, top up, side curtains on, back curtain down, drawn by a gray horse, proceeding towards Evansville. The horse was “just flying,” swerved wide in passing Blackman, and never slackened speed as far as he could hear it. About 10 o'clock that night appellant arrived at a livery barn in Evansville. He drove a gray mare, harnessed to a top buggy. At 6 o'clock the next morning he had breakfast, and shortly afterwards left Evansville. That morning the body of a woman was found in Pigeon creek, about two miles from Evansville, at the side of a bridge on the road leading towards the canal bridge and appellant's home. The body was near the middle of the creek in about four feet of water. The head and upper part of the body were submerged. The legs and lower part of the abdomen were out of the water. Around the neck was a rope, to which was attached

[61 N.E. 718]

a heavy stone. The stream was sluggish. The skull was found to be smashed in, particularly about the temples. The body appeared to have been dead from six to eight weeks, and to have been submerged in water during that time. The hair and nails had all slipped off. The clothing on the body was that worn by Nora Kifer when she left home April 3d. (The slippers and some other articles were not on the body.) A birthmark and other physical characteristics were those of Nora Kifer. The father and others identified the deceased as Nora Kifer. That day appellant painted his buggy and washed the floor carpet thereof. Blood crystals were found in the carpet. An autopsy disclosed that the blood was yet fluid in the body. On the 25th appellant was arrested at his home in Warrick county, and taken to Evansville. The officers permitted him to ride separately with his son Jesse. He told Jesse that, if he was asked about the note, he should say that he did not take any note. At the jail he was searched, and a pair of cast-iron knuckles were found on him. After giving forth many conflicting oral declarations, he made and signed a written statement to the effect that the deceased had caused him so much trouble that he wanted to get her out of the way; that he sent the note making the appointment at the bridge to enable a peddler whom he had employed for that purpose to take her to Chicago; that the peddler returned and said he had taken her to Chicago; that he wrote the letter of April 8th to quiet her parents. The officers arrested a peddler answering the description given by appellant. When the peddler was brought into appellant's presence, he said, “That is the man.” On the peddler's fearfully beseeching him not to accuse an innocent man of the crime, appellant laughed and said: “You are not the man. I have wronged you.” Appellant then told the officers that he had employed a man named Asbury to take deceased away. The officers replied that it was futile to try to deceive them further, that they had had a talk with his son Jesse, and that he was the man. Whereupon appellant replied: “You need not look for outsiders any longer. If you will wait till to-morrow morning, after I have seen my wife, I will tell you who did it, where it was done, and all about it.” In the morning, after consulting counsel, he refused to talk further. An aged aunt visited him in jail, and said: “If you are guilty, Joe, own it like a man, and get the mercy of the court; but, if you are not guilty, say so like a man.” He replied: “She broke my peace at home, and was getting away with all my money, and something had to be done.” While in jail appellant attempted to arrange with fellow prisoners, and with other persons by letter, for proof of an alibi for himself, and of the life and whereabouts of Nora Kifer after April 3d. In the latter part of June some men were cutting wheat in the field between the old well and the highway leading to appellant's home. Two slippers were found, one about 25 yards and the other about 75 yards from the old well, now rain-soaked and muddy, which were identified as those worn by Nora Kifer on the evening of April 3d. There were blood crystals on the rails about the well. After the water was bailed out, at the bottom were discovered a hammer, a pair of grab hooks, which had been made by appellant and used about his...