McRae v. State

• Decision Date: 07 October 1925
• Docket Number: (No. 9429.)
• Parties: McRAE v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

275 S.W. 1067

McRAE v. STATE.

(No. 9429.)

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

October 7, 1925.

Appeal from District Court, Brewster County; C. R. Sutton, Judge.

John McRae was convicted of murder, and he appeals. Reversed and remanded.

W. Van Sickle, of Alpine, for appellant.

Tom Garrard, State's Atty., and Grover C. Morris, Asst. State's Atty., both of Austin, for the State.

MORROW, P. J.

Appellant is condemned to suffer death for the offense of murder.

According to the state's evidence, on the afternoon of January 12, 1925, Bertha Payne, a young woman 19 years of age, got into an automobile driven by the appellant. She was seen by several of the state's witnesses to get in the car and sit on the back seat while the appellant was driving it, sitting in the front seat. She was also seen while they were riding along the public road. The car passed several houses, and witnesses saw the parties in the situation mentioned.

According to the state's testimony, before the deceased had gotten into the car, appellant had invited another young girl to ride with him, but she declined to do so. On the same afternoon, about a quarter of a mile from town, state's witnesses, while driving along the public road, saw the body of the young woman lying near the road with her head in a pool of blood. About 50 yards distant from the body these witnesses saw a Ford sedan automobile standing still, and the appellant, a negro man, was standing nearby. These witnesses did not stop, but continued on their journey.

The officers received information touching the whereabouts of the body, and went to the place designated, and there found a finger ring which belonged to the deceased. They also saw a pool of blood near the road. They followed the car tracks some yards, and there found the body of the deceased. The officers then went to the tent at which the appellant lived and where his wife was working. They noticed blood upon his hands and on the car. The blood on the car was on the running board and on the back seat. The appellant's clothes were also bloody. The officers testified that for a space of about 20 feet along near the pool of blood the ground was torn about 8 or 10 feet square. They noticed tracks of a man and woman which showed where the heel of a woman had slid about 14 or 16 inches. The place at which the pool of blood was found, as we understand the record, was upon a hill, in plain view of the town and near a schoolhouse. Near the pool of blood there were flat limestone rocks, but not immediately at the pool. The ground showed that something had been drug for about 20 feet.

A doctor who examined the wounds testified that the left jaw of the deceased was fractured; that the upper and lower teeth were loose; that the skin was not broken, but merely scratched; that there were no lacerations. The skull was crushed above the temporal bone at a point about 2 inches above and 1 inch forward from a vertical line drawn even with the left ear. The doctor made no actual measurements. The blows, according to the doctor, were made with some blunt instrument; that it was possible but improbable that the blows could have been made simultaneously. On cross-examination, the doctor gave the opinion that it was possible that the wounds might have been made by a fall from the automobile upon the rocks nearby. The doctor had never seen the ground upon which the homicide took place.

Appellant testified that, while riding in his car, he saw the deceased, whom he knew; that she asked to be given a ride; that he told her to get in the car and he would take her home; that when he got to her house she told him to drive past. He drove fast along the road which was hard and bumpy. Upon reaching a hill, she touched his shoulder, and told him not to drive so fast; that he then turned around to switch off the gas and reduce the speed when he heard her moan. He turned his head and saw her lying on the ground, flat on her back and her head twisted under a little. He stopped his car as soon as possible. He saw another car passing. He tried to carry the body, but it was too heavy, so he drug it a little ways, and put it in the car and moved it to the place where it was afterwards found. He explained his conduct by the statement that he was seared and did not know what to do. He told the officers that some of the blood upon his clothing was from a piece of meat. This was not true.

While appellant...