Little v. State

• Decision Date: 16 November 1898
• Citation: 47 S.W. 984
• Parties: LITTLE v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

47 S.W. 984

LITTLE v. STATE.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

November 16, 1898.

Appeal from district court, Hunt county; Howard Templeton, Judge.

Charley Little was convicted of murder in the first degree, and he appeals. Affirmed.

Daniel Upthegrove, Thos. F. Ragsdale, and J. G. Matthews, for appellant. Mann Trice, for the State.

HENDERSON, J.

Appellant was convicted of murder in the first degree, and his punishment assessed at death; hence this appeal.

The statement of facts shows substantially that appellant and deceased had been hired to pick cotton for one Josh Merrill, and lived together at his house for about a month. They left Merrill's on Friday, November 12th, about 1 o'clock, to go to Whitewright, where deceased expected to take the train for Denison. Deceased was not coming back, but defendant was coming back with his horse and buggy, and on Sunday was to take the deceased's trunk to Wolfe City, and forward it to him at Galveston. Deceased (Stonecypher) and defendant were seen together at Wolfe City on that Friday evening; and later on the same evening, about 6 o'clock, they were seen at Celeste, a little place in Hunt county, several miles from Wolfe City. They put up their horse, and had him fed, and also got supper themselves. About 7 o'clock they left Celeste, stating they were going to Valley Creek. Stonecypher was not afterwards seen alive by any witness. The defendant returned to Wolfe City in the buggy alone about 4:20 the next morning. The horse appeared to be very tired. He remained in Wolfe City until late that evening. The state showed that appellant returned to Merrill's late on Saturday evening, and on Sunday or Monday took the trunk of Stonecypher from Merrill's, and carried it to Wolfe City and expressed it to Galveston. Some time after this, and before November 20th, appellant and one Woodard were seen at Honey Grove; appellant stating that he was going to Tennessee. A few days subsequently they were at Detroit, to which point they had shipped appellant's trunk from Honey Grove. A few days after this, defendant and Woodard, while going across the country in appellant's buggy, were arrested in the edge of Lamar county, and brought back to Hunt county. On Saturday morning, November 13th, some time after midnight,—about 4 o'clock,— an outhouse belonging to one Roach, several miles from Celeste, was discovered to be on fire. It was shown that, about a year before this, appellant had worked on the premises adjoining this outhouse, and was familiar with it. Later in the day, on Saturday morning, the charred body of a man was found among the débris of the burned house. Its location was fixed as within the walls of the north room. On an examination of the body, the back of the skull was found to be crushed, evidently with some heavy bludgeon or blunt instrument. There was no evidence, outside of the circumstances herein related, and the confessions and testimony of appellant, identifying the charred remains which were discovered as the body of the deceased, Stonecypher. The criminative facts making out the corpus delicti, and connecting appellant with the murder, in addition to what has been stated, were as follows: Deceased was shown to have been possessed of a considerable amount of money—about $100—prior to his leaving Merrill's. After the parties left there, and at Wolfe City, they were shown to be drinking. When they left Celeste, it was for the purpose of going to a house where some lewd women were believed to reside. Near the burned house, where the charred remains were found, in an old cistern, a piece of iron belonging to a plow near by was discovered. Evidently this was the instrument with which the homicide was committed, for blood and hair were found on it. The fresh tracks of a buggy drawn by a horse were followed from the burned house in the direction of Wolfe City for some distance. Appellant, though not having much money before the homicide, was shown to have immediately thereafter been possessed of a considerable amount,—some $20 bills and a $20 gold piece; and he appeared to be rather prodigal of his means, stating on one or two occasions that he had plenty of money. Appellant was also shown, shortly after the homicide, to have been found in possession of the deceased's watch, and also of a peculiar shell button belonging to deceased. The trunk of deceased, which was shown to have been shipped to Galveston, was found there, and identified and brought back after the arrest of appellant. Two confessions of appellant were introduced: One made to Woodard, his traveling companion, before his arrest, and the other to Jeff Mason, an officer, after his arrest. In the first he admitted that he had killed Stonecypher for his money, and that he got from him $108.50; that he afterwards burned the house in which his remains were, to cover up the crime. He also stated that appellant at that time had a $20 bill which had blood on it. The confession to the officer was as follows: "He said that they had left Josh Merrill's with a view of going up near Leonard to see some women; that they went to Wolfe City, and then went from there to Klondike to get some whisky, and then back to Wolfe City, and from there to Celeste; that after they got to Celeste they took supper, and had their horse fed, and after supper started to see the women in to the left of Leonard, and after they got in above Leonard they learned that the women were gone; that they turned around then, and in coming back to Celeste, and when they got to where the roads fork at John Stone's residence, at the northwest corner of his field, instead of turning square to the left, as they had gone, they kept straight forward, coming south, which turned them to the right of his premises, and around by Lane's store; that he, being familiar with the premises, and knowing that it did not make much difference as to the distance, continued the route around by Lane's store to Celeste; that when they came to this old house on their route, which was close to the road, Stonecypher spoke to him about stopping and playing a game of cards; that they stopped first at the old barn, and lit a candle, but the wind was blowing so that they could not keep the candle lighted; that they saw, from the plunder and rubbish and cotton on the front porch, that no one lived in the old house, and went up there and went to playing; that they had played a few games, and defendant caught Stonecypher stealing cards; that he told him about it, and said that he had some cards under his knee; they were sitting, playing on the front porch; that there was considerable old plow gears, rubbish, and plow implements stacked up on the porch, which was to the defendant's back as they played cards; that defendant and Stonecypher carried the former's gun with them that evening when they left, and that, when they got out of the buggy, Stonecypher carried defendant's gun; that the gallery fronts the north, and fronts on the big road; that, while they were playing, Stonecypher's back was to the east, and he had defendant's gun lying down on his right side; defendant's back was to the west; that, when he caught Stonecypher stealing cards, that he accused him of stealing cards, and that they got into a row over it, and that Stonecypher raised the gun on him, and he reached back behind him and found the iron bar, and hit Stonecypher in the head and killed him; that he did it to keep Stonecypher from killing him; that he had to do it;...