Parker v. Commonwealth

• Decision Date: 01 December 1894
• Citation: 28 S.W. 500,96 Ky. 212
• Parties: PARKER v. COMMONWEALTH.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

28 S.W. 500

96 Ky. 212

PARKER v. COMMONWEALTH.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

December 1, 1894

Appeal from circuit court, Scott county.

"To be officially reported."

Caleb W. Parker was convicted of murder, and appeals. Reversed.

Owens &amp Finnell, for appellant.

W. J Hendrick and C.J. Bronston, for the Commonwealth.

LEWIS J.

Appellant was convicted of the crime of murder, and sentenced to death. Besides himself and the deceased, no person was present when the homicide with which he is charged took place; and the commonwealth seemed to rely for proof of his guilt principally upon a confession made to the officer who arrested him, which does not differ materially from his own account of the occurrence as a witness upon the trial. It appears that in 1876 he removed from Scott county, Ky. where he was born and raised, to the state of Kansas, and in June 1888, returned to visit the family of his father and brothers and sisters. On Sunday night next before Monday when the killing was done, he heard from relatives who had attended church that deceased, S. T. Connellee, Jr., who was a constable, had some sort of legal process against him, which he seemed to suppose was a warrant of arrest; and the next day, before noon, he had an interview with his brother-in-law, Penn, during which he asked whether Connellee was a man who would be likely to shoot him if he ran in order to avoid arrest, and was told he had better not attempt it. But Penn at the same time suggested it was not a warrant of arrest Connellee had, but simply a summons in a civil action brought by a certain firm against him for debt, whereupon he replied, if that was all, he did not care about the process, as he was able to, and would upon his return to Kentucky in August, settle the debt. His version of the homicide, as stated on the witness stand, is that after parting from his sister, who left their father's house for her own home, he took an old shotgun, supposed from the caps being in place to be loaded, for the purposes of killing a squirrel on his way for his father, who was an invalid, and started to the house of Penn, his brother-in-law, in order to get him to carry accused to Georgetown next day, on his route home to Kansas; that when he got beyond the barn, about 150 yards from his father's house, he heard a man say to him to halt, at the same time walking rapidly down a hill towards him, and also asking if his name was Parker. To that question accused answered, "Yes," and then asked his name but, instead of answering, Connellee ordered him to lay down his gun. Accused then commenced backing towards his father's house, when he was again ordered to lay down his gun, and just as Connellee got to a drain at the foot of a hill, where his body was subsequently found, he the third time ordered the gun laid down, and, being asked by what authority he ordered it down, he placed his hand behind him, drew his pistol, and, bringing it on line with accused, said, "This is my authority." Accused, having his gun grasped by the...