Meyer v. State

Decision Date13 December 1921
Citation176 Wis. 184,185 N.W. 520
PartiesMEYER v. STATE.
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Error to Circuit Court, Clark County; James Wickham, Judge.

Julius Meyer was convicted of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to life imprisonment, and to review such sentence he brings error. Affirmed.

The plaintiff in error, hereinafter called the defendant, was convicted of the crime of murder in the first degree on June 15, 1918, and sentenced to life imprisonment. To review such sentence he sued out a writ of error.Loren Risk, of Minneapolis, Minn., for plaintiff in error.

Wm. J. Morgan, Atty. Gen., and John F. Baker, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

VINJE, J.

[1] Defendant, his wife, Margaret, and two boys, lived upon a farm in Clark county. On Thanksgiving evening, 1918, at about 10 o'clock, some of defendant's neighbors discovered that his house was on fire, and upon reaching it they found him outside, making no effort to get into the bedroom, where, upon being questioned, he claimed his wife was. The house burned down completely, and next day, after large quantities of water had been poured upon the burning débris, the body of his wife was found in the northeast corner of the basement under about two feet of burned material and ashes on the basement floor, with nothing under it except a small board that was not burned to any extent. The upper part of the body was considerably burned, but the lower part was not, showing the body was in the basement before the fire began. That is further substantiated by witnesses, who saw a hole burned in the bedroom floor and watched objects fall through it to the basement, but saw no body fall through, though they looked for it. A post mortem showed that her skull had received three severe blows from some blunt, but compact, instrument before death--one causing a stellar fracture of the skull at the cocipital bone; one a fracture of the skull on the right side, breaking the bone at the base of the ear, the right eye socket, and breaking the cheek bone in two places. Any one of these two blows would cause instant unconsciousness and certain death. The other blow, on the left side of the head, was not so severe, though it might cause death. The tissues around the blows were infiltrated with blood and showed such an amount of hemorrhage that it was certain they were inflicted while the heart was still beating and the circulation of the blood in progress. So it was conclusively established that she met her death by blows upon the head and that the body was in the basement before the fire touched it.

Upon the evening in question the defendant's two sons had gone to a dance, and he and his wife had taken one Woodkey from a place some 8 or 10 miles away to their house, which they reached about 9:20. Woodkey left for his home a short distance away, the wife started for the house, and the defendant for the garage with the car. From that time till the neighbors came, upon discovering the fire, the defendant and his wife were alone. He claims he put the car away, went into the kitchen for some warm water to doctor a sick horse, and remained in the barn till a short time before the neighbors came. He thinks he must have dozed for a short time while watching the sick horse. It was fairly well established that there was no sick horse.

Among a number of more or less suspicious circumstances were these: He made no effort to get to his wife, who he claimed was in the bedroom. Next day he made no effort to put out the burning débris, and when the neighbors began to pour water over the place where the body lay he asked them to stop, because the water would crack and spoil his basement wall. When they continued, he stopped the...

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7 cases
  • State v. Stortecky
    • United States
    • Wisconsin Supreme Court
    • June 22, 1956
    ...86 N.W. 596; Weisenbach v. State, supra [138 Wis. 152, 119 N.W. 843]; Krueger v. State, 171 Wis. 566, 578, 177 N.W. 917; Meyer v. State, 176 Wis. 184, 187, 185 N.W. 520.' If the evidence in any reasonable view could support any of the lower degrees requested for submission, the refusal woul......
  • Commonwealth v. Connolly
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
    • March 31, 1941
    ...624, 21 N.W. 387;Alder v. Commonwealth, 215 Ky. 613, 629, 286 S.W. 696;State v. Genna, 163 La. 701, 717, 112 So. 655;Meyer v. State, 176 Wis. 184, 187, 188, 185 N.W. 520;Commonwealth v. Crittenton, 326 Pa. 25, 191 A. 358. We must not be understood, however, as approving the application of i......
  • Sweda v. State
    • United States
    • Wisconsin Supreme Court
    • January 12, 1932
    ...v. State, 111 Wis. 127, 140, 86 N. W. 596; Weisenbach v. State, supra; Krueger v. State, 171 Wis. 566, 578, 177 N. W. 917;Meyer v. State, 176 Wis. 187, 185 N. W. 520. Of course, if there was no request, on behalf of defendant, for the submittal of lesser degrees of the offense, then the cou......
  • DeVroy v. State
    • United States
    • Wisconsin Supreme Court
    • January 13, 1942
    ...127, 140, 86 N.W. 596;Weisenbach v. State, 138 Wis. 152, 119 N.W. 843;Krueger v. State, 171 Wis. 566, 578, 177 N.W. 917;Meyer v. State, 176 Wis. 184, 187, 185 N.W. 520. On behalf of Devroy it is claimed that the killing of Emily Kaiser was in the heat of passion could be inferred by the jur......
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