Lindsey v. State, 26171
| Decision Date | 03 December 1970 |
| Docket Number | No. 26171,26171 |
| Citation | 178 S.E.2d 848,227 Ga. 48 |
| Parties | Walter Wilson LINDSEY v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
1. The testimony of the alleged coconspirator of appellant was corroborated by other evidence connecting appellant with the crime, and the jury was authorized to find that he was a conspirator in the robbery which resulted in the death of the deceased.
2. Appellant's former acquittal of the charge of robbery was not based on a verdict of a jury finding that he was not guilty of that offense, and such acquittal is not res judicata on the question of his guilt or innocence of the crime of robbery in the same transaction in which the homicide occurred for which he was tried.
3. The statement of the alleged coconspirator of appellant, made during the pendency of the criminal enterprise, was admissible in evidence.
4. Money found in an automobile in which appellant was riding as a passenger at the time of his arrest was admissible in evidence.
5. Since the evidence was sufficient to corroborate the testimony of the alleged co-conspirator, it was not error to admit physical evidence related to the crime.
Albert B. Wallace, Jonesboro, for appellant.
Richard Bell, Dist. Atty., Eugene Highsmith, Decatur, Arthur K. Bolton, Atty. Gen., Harold N. Hill, Jr., Executive Asst. Atty. Gen., Marion O. Gordon, William R. Childers, Jr., Asst. Attys. Gen., Atlanta, for appellee.
Walter Wilson Linsey was jointly indicted with Carlton Lee Wells for the murder of Edward Chesnut. Wells pleaded guilty. Lindsey was tried and convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He appeals from his judgment of conviction and sentence, and enumerates as error the denial of his motion for new trial, as amended, and other alleged errors.
The murder with which appellant was charged occured while a robbery was being committed. Wells admits that he is the person who committed the robbery, during which the deceased was killed. It was the contention of the State that appellant conspired with Wells to commit the robbery, and was guilty of the murder resulting from that crime.
1. The answers to several of the questions raised by the enumeration of errors depend on a determination of the sufficiency of the evidence to show that there was a conspiracy between Wells and appellant to commit the robbery, and we will first consider this question.
The testimony of an accomplice, uncorroborated by other competent evidence, is not sufficient to convict a person charged with a felony. Code § 38-121. Appellant strongly urges that there was no evidence to corroborate the testimony of Wells that appellant suggested the robbery, during the course of which the deceased was killed, and conspired with him in effecting the robbery.
The robbery occurred at the grocery store and filling station of two brothers, Charles and Edward Chesnut. The testimony of the surviving brother shows the following: The time of the robbery was 'dusk dark.' Wells walked up to their station, and at gun-point forced them to go into the store, and one of the victims to give him his pocketbook, which contained abut $400 in bills and some checks. Wells forced the brothers to get in their truck and drive the three of them to a place designated by Wells. There Wells made the brothers get out of the truck. The gun was discharged, and Edward Chesnut received a bullet wound, from which he later died. Charles Chesnut then grabbed Wells and pulled him to the ground and beat him with the gun. Wells asked Chesnut if he was trying to kill him, and when Chesnut said that he was, Wells said: Chesnut asked who it was and Wells said: 'Wilson Lindsey.' Chesnut asked where Lindsey was, and Wells replied: 'He's down there waiting on me in the truck.' Chesnut hit Wells twice more. Chesnut's brother said that he was shot, and Chesnut went to his brother's assistance, allowing Wells to escape.
Carlton Lee Wells testified as to appellant's participation in the robbery as follows: At about 10 o'clock on the morning of January 8, 1969 (the date of the homicide) he came to appellant's boarding house. He had come to the county to look at an abandoned generator plant they were talking of buying. He, appellant, and Jack Miller went to a whiskey store and bought some whiskey. They were riding in Wells' truck. At one time during the day they stopped at Jones Trading Post. Later in the day Wells had a conversation with appellant about the store operated by the Chesnut brothers. Appellant mentioned that 'there was a good bit of money there,' and they decided that 'somebody ought to get it.' Appellant said that Wells would have to take the gun and go and take the money because appellant was known by the people and Wells was not. Wells took the pistol belonging to appellant, which was on the seat of the truck, and got out of the truck and walked about 500 yards to the store. They were to wait for him at Jones' store. The robbery and shooting occurred about 6 p.m., and Wells ran through the woods until about midnight. When he came to a house, he told the people there that he had been in an automobile accident, and hired them to take him to appellant's boarding house, paying them $120. When Wells got to the boarding house the following occurred: On cross examination Wells admitted that he had been convicted of numerous felonies. The indictments and convictions were introduced in evidence by appellant. Wells stated that he did not remember making any statement to Chesnut while Chesnut was beating him with the pistol.
The circumstances relied on by the State to corroborate Wells' testimony are the following: Watson Jones, who operated Jones Trading Post, saw appellant and Wells together, a short distance from the scene of the crime, at about 4:30 or 5 p.m on the date of the homicide. Appellant admitted that he and Jack Miller waited for Wells in Wells' truck a short distance from the place where the robbery was committed, although appellant stated that Wells said he was going to see about a generator. A few hours after the robbery and murder, a police officer pursuing appellant saw him stoop over in the automobile in which he was riding, and when they searched this automobile they found $267 in bills under the seat beneath the place appellant was sitting, and some of these bills had a red, dried material on them which seemed to be blood. The amount of $267, plus the amount paid by Wells to the person driving him after the robbery ($120 according to Wells, and $20 according to the witness Hurst) approximated the amount of money taken in the robbery.
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