Manasco v. State

• Decision Date: 17 June 1912
• Citation: 148 S.W. 1025,104 Ark. 397
• Parties: MANASCO v. STATE
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

148 S.W. 1025

104 Ark. 397

MANASCO v. STATE

Supreme Court of Arkansas

June 17, 1912

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Appeal from Howard Circuit Court; Jefferson T. Cowling, Judge affirmed.

STATEMENT BY THE COURT.

On the 8th day of January, 1912, in Howard County, Arkansas, Walter Manasco killed T. D. Patterson by stabbing him with a knife. Patterson was a merchant at Umpire, In addition to his regular store, he had a warehouse a short distance away, but not connected with the store. The appellant, with one Park Hunter, was standing down on the warehouse gallery; Patterson went down there, and asked the boys what they were doing. According to the testimony of appellant, Patterson said "Let me lock the door," and he locked the door and started back when appellant said: "Don't I owe you ninety cents?" Patterson replied: "Yes." Appellant then handed him a dollar bill, and he handed appellant ten cents. Appellant then said: "By G , we are even, and we?" Patterson said: "Yes." Appellant said: "We will stay that way." Patterson said: "All right," and turned and went back in his store, and appellant and Park Hunter also went back in the store. Appellant and Park Hunter remained there a little while, until Mr. Stone, the blacksmith, called appellant to assist in shoeing appellant's mare. Then he and Park Hunter went over with Mr. Stone, the blacksmith, and according to the testimony of Mr. Stone, while they were going to the shop the following took place: "One of them, I don't know which one, said: 'We got run out awhile ago,' and I spoke about something else, and when I got through they mentioned it again, and I says: 'Out of where?' and he says, 'Out of that old devil's store.' He says: 'We went down there in his warehouse, and Mr. Patterson came down there, and says: 'What are you doing here?' and Park says: 'I told him that we wasn't doing a G d thing:' Walter says: 'I told him we wasn't trying to steal anything. The damned old s o a b .', he says, 'if he fools with me, he will get his entrails cut out.'"

The appellant and Park Hunter, in their testimony, denied that such conversation took place between them and witness Stone.

After the mare was shod, the two boys, Walter Manasco and Park Hunter, left witness Stone's shop together, and went into Patterson's store together. The witness describes what took place in the store when the boys first went in before the fatal encounter as follows: "It was afternoon when they came in. They came in the store, and seemed to be tickled about something, and monkeyed around there, and were whittling, and kept looking kind o' like they were tickled, and I just watched them, and they brought out an oath or two; I don't know which one, but there was an oath, and in very a short time they went out of the house, and walked down towards Mr. Patterson's hardware store. After they passed, going towards Patterson's hardware store, Mr Patterson went towards the door on his tiptoes, walking light, and I allowed maybe he thought the boys were in the lower house. Any way he went over in there, and I heard the door shut. After the door shut, Mr. Patterson came back in the house, and took his seat, and looked like he was kind o' mad, but didn't say anything. After he had taken his seat and lit his pipe, Walter and Park came back in there, and Walter came in between me and Henry Townsend, and pulled his knife out of his pocket. He just sort of got over there on the counter, and pulled his knife out, and looked over at Patterson, and I turned my eye at Walter, and I saw there was something wrong with them. The way he looked over there at Mr. Patterson, I just drew an idea something had went wrong with him by him drawing that knife out and looking at him. He just went on and got on the other side of the stove, and picked up some shavings, and went to whittling on them, and got a little further around there, when Mr. Stone called him, and he then went out of the house. Neither Walter nor Park said anything to Patterson while they were in the store at that time."

A witness, Arthur Hunter, a half-brother of Park Hunter, who was in the store when appellant and Park Hunter returned to the store from the blacksmith shop, testified as follows: "They were gone maybe half an hour, and they both came back into the store, back around the stove. Patterson was sitting by the stove at that time. I asked Mr. Patterson if he had any calico, and he got up and went behind the counter to get the calico, and walked up to about middleways of the house, and laid the cloth on the counter. He was measuring the cloth off for me when I heard Walter cursing back about the stove. Patterson said to him: 'If you are mad at me and want to jump on me or whip me, get at it.' Walter said, 'All right,' and said either 'By G ,' or 'G d you, I had just as soon whip you as anybody!' And when he said that he started immediately, and Bill Manasco got hold of his coat. Bill was sort o' behind Walter when he grabbed him by the coat, just as he started to go behind the counter. He stopped at the openings between the counters. Patterson was coming on down behind the counter, and took off his coat as he walked down there; he laid his coat on the counter. When he got up to where Walter was, he throwed up his hands, and I saw Walter strike him with a knife. Patterson threw up his hands before Walter struck, when the knife struck in Patterson's breast. I looked back down to where he was, and he says: 'He has killed me.' I started to him, and when I got right to him, Walter and Bill come up on the other side of the house, and Patterson picked up an axe handle as they passed on out by him, and drew the same to strike, and Bill says, "Tip, don't hit me.' When Patterson threw up his hands, he had nothing in them. When the trouble came up, Walter went west. When he started, he didn't go in the direction of Patterson, but he went west, and Patterson went on down west between the wall and the counter. Walter had to go three or four steps to get to the end of the counter, and Patterson had to go fifteen or twenty feet. Bill took hold of Walter just as soon as he started, and stopped him at the end of the counter."

A witness on behalf of the State testified that he saw Walter come down Patterson's steps after he heard of the cutting. Walter "was walking tolerably pert," says the witness, "and as he come down the steps I heard him say, 'He needs his throat cut,' or 'ought to have his G d throat cut."

Appellant testified, in part, as follows as to the fatal encounter: "Arthur asked Patterson if he had any red calico, and he said. 'Yes,' and they got up to go get it, and I was telling Bill that Patterson came down there and ordered us out of his old storehouse and off his old gallery, and asked us what we were doing there, and as I told Bill Mr. Patterson heard me, and says: 'Walter, if you are mad at me and want to fight me, just get ready.' And, as he said that, I turned and looked at him this way, and says, 'By G , I had just as soon fight you as anybody.' I supposed he was bluffing at me, and I meant to bluff him. I did not think he was going to fight me. When I said this, he threw his hat off, laid it down on the counter, and came towards me betwixt a trot and a run. He was coming west towards me, and the counter ran down a piece from the stove, about six feet, and I got down off the counter, and went down towards the end of the counter, and, just as I got to the end of the counter, I saw he was still coming, and I run my hand in my pocket, and opened my knife, and stepped right to the end of the counter and he ran into me, and was striking at me with his right fist, and I just threw this hand and hit him with the knife. I struck him twice. I didn't intend to kill him; didn't intend to have any fight with him; struck him to keep him from running on to me. I do not know where I struck him."

Park Hunter and Bill Manasco corroborated, substantially, the testimony of Walter Manasco, and their testimony tends to show that when Patterson started towards Walter Manasco, Bill Manasco told Patterson that Walter didn't want to fight him, and there was no use of having any trouble, but that didn't stop Patterson; that Bill Manasco endeavored to get Walter back out of the way. The testimony showed that Walter Manasco, at the time of the killing, was seventeen years of age and weighed 129 pounds; Patterson was over fifty years of age, and weighed about 200 pounds. The testimony showed that Walter Manasco had taken two drinks that day, but he was not drunk.

The above are substantially the material facts upon which the appellant was indicted for the crime of murder in the first degree. He was convicted of murder in the second degree, and sentenced to the penitentiary for eleven years.

The court, at the request of the State, among others, gave the following instructions, of which appellant complains, towit:

"13. You are instructed that no language or conduct, however violent, abusive or insulting, will justify or excuse the taking of a human life, nor will it reduce the grade of homicide from murder to manslaughter.

"14. You are instructed that if you find and believe from the evidence in this case, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant cut and stabbed the deceased on account of any real or imaginary grievance which he might have had against the deceased, or on account of any threats the deceased might have made against him, or on account of any insulting language which the deceased might have used towards the defendant, or if you should believe beyond a reasonable doubt that he was actuated by all of these in cutting and stabbing the deceased, then you will convict the defendant of murder in the first degree, according as you may find and believe that he...