Patterson v. State

• Decision Date: 03 October 1945
• Docket Number: 15265.
• Citation: 35 S.E.2d 504,199 Ga. 773
• Parties: PATTERSON v. STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

35 S.E.2d 504

199 Ga. 773

PATTERSON v. STATE.

No. 15265.

Supreme Court of Georgia

October 3, 1945

Henry Patterson and Mose Boyd were indicted, in the superior court of Jefferson County, Georgia, for the murder of Bill Johnson. Mose Boyd was not apprehended, and Henry Patterson was convicted with a recommendation of mercy and sentenced to life imprisonment. A motion for new trial was filed on the general grounds and nine special grounds, which are dealt with in the syllabus. The evidence showed that Bill Johnson had been stabbed and cut five times on the body, arm and neck, and that a cut which severed the jugular artery on the left side of the neck produced death, which, according to the attending physician, would have resulted within fifteen or twenty minutes from the time of severance of the jugular artery. Eyewitnesses testified that Mose Boyd was riding in his automobile, with Louise Givins and others, among whom was Henry Patterson, the defendant, whom Boyd left at Patterson's home near that of Louise Givins. Later they brought Louise Givins back to her home, and upon arriving there Bill Johnson, the deceased, was on the porch and Patterson was nearby. There was evidence that Johnson and Boyd were both going with Louise Givins and were rivals. After Louise Givins entered her house, Mose Boyd knocked on the door, and when she opened it he came in followed by Bill Johnson, Henry Patterson, and others. Boyd passed by her and Johnson then slapped her, whereupon, according to her testimony, Boyd and Johnson caught hold of her, one of them pulling her one way and the other pulling her the other way and she tried to get them to go out; and, when she couldn't get them to go out, Henry Patterson 'took up the argument, and when I looked around Mose and Bill was tied up fighting, and I see Henry go up to Mose and Bill, and he went up to them like that with a knife, and when I seed him go up to them like that I broke and run out my back door. Henry Patterson is the one who had the knife. As to how he handled the knife, I just seed him come up with a knife like that (indicating raising it). It was open.' Eddie Hargrove testified: 'I saw Bill walk up on the porch behind Louise after Louise went in the house, and Louise went in first and Bill Johnson went in behind Louise and Mose Boyd went in behind Bill, and Henry went in behind Mose Boyd, and I come in behind Henry and Robert come in behind me. We were not going in the house for any particular purpose. As to what happened after we got in the house, well, just as soon as they got in the house, me and Robert Heath wasn't exactly right with them, but we come in right behind them and as soon as he got in the house I heard Bill slap Louise. I didn't see him slap her, I just heard him slap her as I come in the door. As to how I know he slapped her, when I come in the door I heard him slap her as I come in the door I heard them fussing, and I got in the little door, and as soon as I walked in the house Bill he started to backing up, and Mose Boyd, he started on him. Mose Boyd started on Bill, he was backing on up, and they backed up into the shed room. It was dark in there, in the shed room. In the front there was a light there, but in the back room it was dark. Mose Boyd was going on Bill and he was backing up, and Bill and Mose Boyd backed into the middle room, the dark room; and Henry Patterson, at that time he went into that room where the other two was, at the time that I saw Henry in there and at the time that I saw him going to that room, I did not see him with anything in his hand; I sure haven't seen him with anything. I haven't seen him with anything at any time during the time I was there. I didn't see but three that went into that room, Mose Boyd was going on Bill, and Bill was backing up in the room, and Mose Boyd was going on him, and after they got in there I heard the lumbering up kind of side of the house, against the side of the house. I did not go in there to see what was going on. I went out. I went out of the front door. * * * Mose Boyd and Bill and Henry Patterson were in that room where the lumbering was going on.' On cross-examination, he testified that when he left the scene he started down the road to his home and was overtaken by Mose Boyd, in his car, who picked up the witness, and they and Robert Heath went along together; that, when Mose Boyd picked him up, Boyd said: 'I stabbed at him; I don't know whether I hit him or not because it was kind of in the dark.' No witness testified that Mose Boyd was seen with a knife, and there was no testimony as to the actual cutting in the dark middle room. The witnesses all ran when the trouble started. Mary Queen testified: that on the night of the homicide Love (Moon) Mulling, who earlier that night had been with Bill Johnson on Louise Givins's porch, was at Mary Queen's home, the fourth house from Louise Givins's house, together with Bertha Lee Salem; that Bill Johnson knocked and was calling Moon Mulling, and came on into the house, saying, 'Moon, Moon, Henry, Henry,' and told Moon to get the doctor; that 'Blood was coming out of his mouth and all over him from the looks to me, and he didn't stand up no time after he got down; after he got down he allowed Moon [to] get the doctor. Before he mentioned about the doctor, he was saying, 'Moon, Moon, Henry, Henry,' and after he got down to the floor he was lying flat on his back. He tried to get up, and he said, 'Moon, get the doctor,' and he tried to say something else but what it was I don't know. * * * The doctor didn't even get there; he did die right there on my floor.' On cross-examination, she testified that, after she left the house, Henry Patterson came up behind her and Moon Mulling, and 'he asked us who Bill said cut him.' Bertha Salem also testified as to Bill Johnson's statement on entering Mary Queen's house, of 'Moon, Moon, Henry, Henry,' and that, when they were going up the street, Henry was walking behind Mary Queen and Mulling, and asked Mary Queen, 'Who did Bill say cut him?' and she said, 'Henry,' and he said 'Thank you,' and turned around. Love (Moon) Mulling testified that earlier on the night of the homicide he had gone with Bill Johnson to Mary Queen's house, and Bill left him there and came back about five minutes later, and Mary Queen heard him calling, 'Moon, Moon,' and opened the door, 'and when the door opened Bill fell up in my arms and told me he was cut, and I asked him who cut him, and he said, 'Henry.' * * * I started to get the doctor * * * and got to Louise's house * * * and Henry popped up and he 'lowed 'you know who cut Bill?' and I says, 'Yes,' and he says, 'who?' and I says * * * 'I will tell you when I get home,' and when I got up on the bank I says, 'you are the one that cut him,' and Henry says, 'I know it, I know it,' and turned around.'

There was evidence for the defendant, for the purpose of showing previous contradictory statements by Moon Mulling as to the dying declaration and the confession testified to by him. The defendant made a statement, in which he told of being at Louise Givins's house with the others at the time of the homicide, and that, when Bill Johnson slapped Louise Givins, Mose Boyd asked Bill what he kept slapping her for, 'and Bill Johnson asked him what he had to do with it, and he said, 'I got a heap,' and that time Bill Johnson made for his hip pocket, and Mose Boyd sailed on to him with his knife, but I didn't see Bill Johnson come out with nothing, and they got to fighting in there and went on into the other room, and so me and Eddie Hargrove and Robert Heath, we all run out, and they run out there and they got in the car, and so I run out there, and where Louise went, I didn't see Louise; I run over there, and they got in the car, Mose Boyd, I don't know who drove the car off, but I know Eddie Hargrove and Robert Heath went out there and got in the car, and they say they picked him up down the road. I don't know whether he got in the car or not, but I know they run out there and got in the car, so the two boys, we went on down there where they were and after that we heard somebody 'low down there he was cut. Love Mulling, somebody, 'lowed down there Bill Johnson got cut to death, somebody done cut Bill Johnson about to death; and Love Mulling he come up there and says, 'Who cut Bill, who cut Bill? You all know who cut Bill?' and I says, 'Ain't nobody cut him but Mose Boyd, they were in there fighting about Louise.' That is what I told him, and I went on down there where Bill Johnson was lying down on the floor and all of them, Shine and all of us went down there, and when us walked in there he asked about getting a doctor, and Shine said it was too late to go after the doctor, and I left and went on down there to the next house where I stayed, and I stayed there until Mr. _____ and the sheriff come down there, and as far as having anything to do with it, I didn't have nothing to do with it, I was in there, but I didn't do nothing to him.' In a supplemental statement, the defendant said, 'I did not have any conversation with Love Mulling after this fight.'

M. C. Barwick, of Louisville, for plaintiff in error.

R. N. Hardeman, of Louisville, W. H. Lanier, Sol. Gen., of Metter, Eugene Cook, Atty. Gen., and Victor Davidson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendant in error.

Syllabus Opinion by the Court.

JENKINS Presiding Justice.

1. The evidence authorized the jury to find the defendant guilty. This is true irrespective of whether the defendant Patterson was a joint conspirator with Boyd, who was also indicted, so as to render each responsible for the act of the other, or whether Patterson acted purely on his own impulse. The evidence authorized a finding that Patterson inflicted the mortal wound,...