Lanier v. State
| Decision Date | 16 February 1939 |
| Docket Number | 12630. |
| Citation | 1 S.E.2d 405,187 Ga. 534 |
| Parties | LANIER v. STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
1. A conviction of one charged with a felony upon the testimony of an accomplice is unauthorized unless there is other evidence connecting the defendant with the crime independent of the testimony of the accomplice. Corroboration of the accomplice as to the time, place and circumstances of the transaction if there be nothing to show any connection of the defendant therewith except the testimony of the accomplice, is not sufficient to support a conviction.
2. The admission of irrelevant testimony where it is not shown that same was also prejudicial does not constitute reversible error.
3. It is reversible error to admit proof of the commission of other crimes by the defendant on trial where he has not put his own character in issue and where such independent crimes have no connection with the alleged crime for which he is on trial.
4. While proof of statements and conversations of a co-conspirator during the pendency of the conspiracy are admissible in evidence against another of the conspirators on trial, provided the fact of conspiracy has been prima facie established by other evidence, yet such declarations of an individual alleged to be a co-conspirator are not admissible for the purpose of proving the existence of the conspiracy and, until the conspiracy has been proved by other evidence they are not admissible against the defendant on trial.
5. A charge instructing the jury that they would be unauthorized to convict the defendant upon the testimony of an accomplice unless the corroboration of such testimony connected the defendant with the crime, is not confusing and misleading and does not instruct the jury that if there was other evidence in connection with the testimony of the accused to show the corpus delicti that they would be authorized to convict the defendant.
6. Excerpts from the charge wherein the jury were instructed that if they believed the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt they would be authorized to convict him were not erroneous in a case dependent upon circumstantial evidence because they failed to embrace the circumstantial evidence rule of law, when the jury were fully instructed on the circumstantial evidence rule in another portion of the charge.
Charles E. Anderson, of Millen, O. Frank Brant, of Hiltonia, and Fred T. Lanier, of Statesboro, for plaintiff in error.
W. G. Neville, Sol. Gen., R. Lee Moore, D. C. Jones, and Prince H. Preston, Jr., all of Statesboro, E. K. Overstreet, of Sylvania, Duke Davis, Asst. Atty. Gen., and M. J. Yeomans, Atty. Gen., for the State.
Lonnie Lanier, John Burns, Osborne Newton, and Aaron Nelson were jointly indicted in Screven County, Georgia, for the murder of C. L. Daughtry, a sixty-nine-year-old wealthy farmer of that county. The plaintiff in error, Lonnie Lanier, was separately tried under said indictment and was convicted. He filed his motion for new trial which was amended and later denied. To the judgment denying his motion for new trial he excepted.
The evidence disclosed that on the afternoon of September 22, 1937, the deceased left the town of Rocky Ford in a 1937 Chevrolet coach going toward his home which was about three miles distant on the Sylvania-Rocky Ford highway; that he never arrived at home; that a search was instituted and his body was found on September 24, 1937, lying on the front seat of his automobile; that there were four 38-caliber bullet wounds in the body, two in the back, one in the neck, and one in the head, all fired from the rear. His car was concealed in a clump of bushes about 250 yards from the main highway.
The main witness for the State was Aaron Nelson who was jointly indicted with the defendant for the same crime. He testified that he was a negro boy eighteen years of age and a native of that county; that on Saturday afternoon before the disappearance of the deceased on the following Wednesday he met the other three defendants in Rocky Ford, at which time they sought to get him to ride the rear bumper of Mr. Daughtry's car so that they could rob him; that he refused, and the defendants threatened to kill him; that they instructed him to meet them on the following Wednesday in Rocky Ford, the defendant Osborne saying that he would give him five dollars, and he agreed to meet them; that after he worked turpentine on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday until around 2 o'clock, he left the woods and went across the highway to Rocky Ford, but did not see them there, but met them at the forks of the Sylvania and Rocky Ford road; that they were standing there waiting for him; that he did not know they were going to meet him there; that when he walked near where they were Osborne asked him, 'Are you going to do what we told you?' and he said, 'I might,' and Lonnie said, 'You better go and do it;' that Osborne showed him how they were going to be when he and the deceased came back along there; that Mr. Joe and Ralph Newton were parked in a car a short distance from the fork of the Sylvania road; that Osborne showed him where they would be in the car when they came back, showed him where to get off the car and how to go through the field; that as he turned to leave them they went back towards the car; that it was about 4 o'clock; that he went to Rock Ford and saw the deceased there; that he remained in Rocky Ford about an hour, and then went through a lane to a back street, as he had been directed to do by Osborne Newton, so that he could catch the car when the deceased slowed down to turn a corner; that he caught the car by the tail light and bumper and squatted on the bumper, and was on the left side as directed by Osborne; that Osborne had told him that when he got to the corner to hold out his head so that they could see him, and not to wave his hand as Mr. Daughtry might see him; that just as they turned the corner at the forks of the road the other car was across the road so that deceased could not pass; that he was to get off the car on the left side and go through the field if nobody was with deceased, but if anybody was with deceased he was to continue on the car until it passed them; that nobody was with deceased and he got off the car, climbed the fence, and went through the field; that after he got over the fence he heard four shots up the way they went; that they said they were going to rob the deceased, but did not say they were going to kill him; that witness had never gotten the five dollars promised him; that he went to Savannah a short time after that, and was arrested in Savannah a few weeks later; that he went to Savannah because he got scared; that he was afraid of the defendant Lonnie Lanier because he knew he would kill him because he knew a boy he killed; and that the reason he rode the bumper of the car was because he was scared.
Other evidence showed that the deceased died from gunshot wounds, that two of his pockets were turned inside out and a very small amount of small change was found on his person, but that his bill fold in which he had been known at times to carry large sums of money was not to be found, and the watch which he always carried on his person was gone.
The only evidence tending to corroborate the testimony of Aaron Nelson was the following: Howard Marsh, who lived about 100 yards from the Sylvania and Rocky Ford road, testified that he heard four or five shots in the direction of Rocky Ford but not in the direction where the body of the deceased was found, on the afternoon of September 22, 1937. Charlie Reddick testified that he saw Aaron Nelson crossing the bridge toward Rocky Ford on the afternoon of September 22, 1937. Essie Mae Reddick testified that on the afternoon of September 22, 1937, she saw Aaron Nelson standing across the bridge eating peanuts, and that she saw Mr. Daughtry traveling in a car on the same afternoon going toward his home. Joe Butler testified that on the afternoon of September 22, 1937, about dusk, he saw an automobile going out of Rocky Ford toward Mr. Daughtry's home, and that somebody was riding on the bumper of the car. Johnnie Jackson testified that he was living on Mr. Daughtry's place; that on the afternoon of September 22, 1937, he saw the deceased traveling in his car alone and saw Aaron Nelson on the back of the car; that John Burns heard him telling others about what he saw, and in a few days he saw John Burns again in Rocky Ford, and Burns called him off to a corner of the building and asked him to go back of the store as he wanted to talk to him; that he refused, and that Burns told him that the best thing he could do would be to keep his mouth shut about the man on the back of the car because he knew there were a dozen or more in the car; that the first man witness told about seeing Aaron Nelson on the bumper was detective Price; and that the next time he talked to John Burns, Burns told him not to say anything about what he had said back of the store. Prince Bell testified that he saw Aaron Nelson on the afternoon Mr. Daughtry disappeared, on Mrs. Daughtry's bumper, going toward Mr. Daughtry's home. Pat Johnson testified that he saw John Burns on Thursday afternoon after Mr. Daughtry disappeared on Wednesday; that Burns asked him to have a drink, saying that he had plenty of whisky and plenty of money to buy more; that he pulled a number of bills out of his pocket; and that he would imagine there were seven or eight of the bills, but that he did not know their denominations. E. M. Danner testified that he saw the deceased in Sylvania on the day he disappeared and that the deceased had a roll of money as wide as his finger. E. A. Paterson testified that he lived next door to John Burns when Mr. Daughtry...
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