Omer v. Commonwealth
Decision Date | 08 March 1894 |
Citation | 95 Ky. 353,25 S.W. 594 |
Parties | OMER v. COMMONWEALTH. |
Court | Kentucky Court of Appeals |
Appeal from circuit court, Union county.
"To be officially reported."
William Omer, convicted of murder, appeals. Reversed.
P. B Miller and Yeaman & Lockett, for appellant.
J. W Hendrick, for the Commonwealth.
In the village of Sturgis, in Union county, at about 10 o'clock at night on the 4th day of April, 1893, Taylor Oliver and his wife, each well armed, entered the place of business of Henry Delaney, and demanded that he go at once with them and marry their daughter Abbie, whose ruin they charged he had accomplished. He denied the charge, but, upon being threatened with instant death, he gave up his pistol, and proceeded with the Olivers to a surrey a short distance away in which the daughter was waiting. During this time, some three or four shots were fired by the Olivers. The parties at once drove to Morganfield, some 12 miles away, where the county clerk was aroused, and a marriage license procured. The county judge, found some two miles distant, was awakened and asked to marry the couple, but, upon Delaney detailing the circumstances of his capture and his unwillingness to marry the girl the officer refused to perform the ceremony. Quite a scene ensued, and the prisoner was told that he would be given one more chance, but that, if he made any objection to the next officer approached, they would instantly kill him. A minister was then found who performed the rites while the parties remained in the carriage. They then started back, and, upon reaching the Young hill, some two miles from Morganfield, at about 2 o'clock on the morning of the 5th, they were met by a party of Delaney's friends, when a sudden firing began, in which Abbie Oliver was killed, and her father seriously shot in the arm and face. At the July term of the Union circuit court the appellant and some eight others were jointly indicted for the murder of the girl, and, upon the trial of the accused at the November term, he was found guilty, and his punishment fixed at confinement in the penitentiary for life.
Upon this appeal he insists that certain instructions given the jury were misleading and otherwise prejudicial to him; that much testimony for the state was admitted which was incompetent, and some offered by him was excluded which was competent.
For the purposes now at hand, it will be necessary only to review briefly the appellant's connection with this tragedy. He appears to have been entirely friendly with the Olivers, and was a friend of young Henry Delaney, and, prior to the night of the latter's capture, was seen with him and other friends at various times. On that night he was engaged in doctoring a sick horse, and went to the drug store at which Delaney was employed, for medicine. He there learned of the kidnapping, and, after a consultation with other friends, it was decided not to apprise the relatives of young Delaney of the occurrence; but upon reflection, and after leaving the excited crowd, the accused and Tate agreed that they ought to let Holt, the brother-in-law of Delaney, know of his peril. They walked over to Holt's, about a mile out of town, and told him of the trouble. It was then agreed that George Delaney, Henry's brother, should know the facts. In a short while, some eight or ten of the neighbors and friends of Henry Delaney, including the accused and the relatives named and others, gathered in the village, and it was agreed that they would go over to Morganfield to find out what had become of the parties. At this point the accused thus testifies: etc. Taylor Oliver, as to the occurrences at the hill, testified as follows: etc. Mrs. Oliver testified thus as to the meeting: ...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Watkins v. Commonwealth
... ... Com., 1 S. W. 154, 8 Ky. Law. Rep. 54, ... we held, where a man had been killed in a mêlée, in order to ... convict a person charged with the killing, it was necessary ... to prove either that he struck the fatal blow or aided and ... abetted the one who did. In the case of Omer v ... Com., 95 Ky. 353, 24 S.W. 594, 15 Ky. Law Rep. 694, we ... condemned an instruction by which the jury were in effect ... told that, if Oliver was fired upon and killed by some one ... other than Omer, with Omer's knowledge or consent, the ... defendant was guilty, because that ... ...
-
Howard v. Commonwealth
... ... Commonwealth, 80 Ky. 387; French v. Commonwealth, 7 ... Ky. Law Rep. 747; Kaelin v. Commonwealth, 84 ... Ky. 354, 1 S.W. 594, 8 Ky. Law Rep. 293; Stroud v ... Commonwealth, 19 S.W. 976, 14 Ky. Law Rep. 179; L. & ... C. Packet Co. v. Samuels, 59 S.W. 3, 22 Ky. Law Rep ... 979; Omer v. Commonwealth, 95 Ky. 353, 25 S.W. 594, ... 15 Ky. Law Rep. 694; L. & N. R. Co. v. Simpson, 111 ... Ky. 754, 64 S.W. 733, 23 Ky. Law Rep. 1044; L. & N. R ... Co. v. Carothers, 65 S.W. 833, 66 S.W. 385, 23 Ky. Law ... Rep. 1673; Kennedy v. Commonwealth, 100 S.W. 242, 30 ... Ky. Law Rep ... ...
-
Howard v. Commonwealth
...Commonwealth, 19 S.W. 976, 14 Ky. Law Rep. 179; L. & C. Packet Co. v. Samuels, 59 S. W. 3, 22 Ky. Law Rep. 979; Omer v. Commonwealth, 95 Ky. 353, 25 S.W. 594, 15 Ky. Law Rep. 694; L. & N. R. Co. v. Simpson, 111 Ky. 754, 64 S.W. 733, 23 Ky. Law Rep. 1044; L. & N.R. Co. v. Carothers, 65 S.W. ......
-
James v. Wilson, 1999-CA-000787-MR.
...Lister v. McKee, 79 Ill.App. 210; Himes[Hilmes] v. Stroebel, 59 Wis. 74, 17 N.W. 539; True v. Com., 90 Ky. 651, 14 S.W. 684; Omer v. Com., 95 Ky. 353, 25 S.W. 594. In Eustler v. Hughes,141 a case alleging conspiracy to commit arson, the Court of Appeals stated: A conspiracy to accomplish an......