People v. Cochran

• Decision Date: 28 October 1924
• Docket Number: No. 15989.,15989.
• Citation: 313 Ill. 508,145 N.E. 207
• Parties: PEOPLE v. COCHRAN.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

313 Ill. 508

145 N.E. 207

PEOPLE

v.COCHRAN.

No. 15989.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 28, 1924.

Error to Circuit Court, Washington County; Louis Berneuter, Judge.

Walter C. Cochran was convicted of first degree murder, and he brings error.

Reversed and remanded.

Farmer, J., dissenting.Charles A. Karch, of East St. Louis, J. Paul Carter, of Nashville, and Herbert F. Lill, of Mascoutah, for plaintiff in error.

Edward J. Brundage, Atty. Gen., H. C. Lindauer, State's Atty., of Belleville, Edward C. Fitch, of Springfield, and H. H. House, of Nashville (A. B. Davis and A. W. Peth, both of Belleville, of counsel), for the People.

HEARD, J.

Plaintiff in error, Walter C. Cochran, was indicted by the grand jury of St. Clair county, Ill., charged with the murder of his wife, Mamie Cochran, by shooting her with a revolver. A petition for a change of venue filed by plaintiff in error because of the prejudice of the inhabitants of St. Clair county was granted despite affidavits to the contrary filed by the state, and the cause was transferred to Washington county. Plaintiff in error was arraigned October[313 Ill. 511]4, 1923, and on October 15 his motion for continuance was overruled and the cause reset for October 19. On the granting of the motion for change of venue the trial was reset for November 21, 1923. Another postponement was granted until December 10, 1923. Six days later, on Sunday, December 16, 1923, the jury in said cause returned a verdict of guilty, and fixed his punishment at death by hanging, upon which verdict judgment was entered. He has sued out a writ of error to reverse the judgment of the trial court.

The shooting occurred on the morning of the 10th of September, 1923, in the city of Belleville, in the county of St. Clair. Practically unknown, plaintiff in error arrived in that city May 4, 1923. About a month later, with his wife, he took up his residence in the house where the crime was enacted the following September 10. After coming to Belleville he worked for T. J. Christman, a contractor, decorator, and painter, and Fred Saeger, a contracting painter, and from August 6 to September 1 he worked at the painting trade for Walter C. Brown. The evidence fails to show that he worked for any one between September 1 and the 10th, the day of the shooting. The Cochrans resided at 412 East B street, in Belleville, two blocks north of Main street, and occupied the easterly side of the house, which faced north. The westerly tier of rooms in the residence building were three in number, the front room being occupied by a single man named Bean, and the two rooms to the rear being occupied by F. E. Bascom and family. The Cochrans and Bascoms made common use of the yard to the south of the dwelling. A path or brick walk extended from practically the center of the building beckward the length of the lot to a structure inclosing the outdoor toilet and coal shed. Adjacent to this structure was a small cabin occupied by Mrs. Belle Wangelin, who also shared the rear part of the yard with the Cochrans and Bascoms. Briefly stating the circumstances attending the killing, the evidence discloses that on Sunday afternoon, the day previous to the shooting, a baby born to Mrs. Cochran on August 13, 1923, was christened in a Catholic church, and immediately thereafter a small christening party was held at the Cochran home.

There is no evidence that Cochran became even slightly intoxicated from drinking on Sunday. He left home about 8 o'clock in the morning of the shooting, passing over the walk and into the alley in the rear of the home. He returned half an hour afterwards, and entered his home; there being nothing unusual in his appearance at either time. Mrs. Cochran was washing clothes at the time in the back yard, just west of the Cochran kitchen and in front of the window of the rear room occupied by the Bascoms. Cochran, upon leaving the house the second time, walked to the tub and said to his wife, ‘You come go back there with me,’ to which she replied, ‘Daddy, I am washing,’ and he then repeated his first remark, her second answer being, ‘Daddy, I want to do my washing.’ Cochran then said, ‘You are coming with me,’ and he then took hold of her arm, and they went on down the walk and into the shed. Almost immediately thereafter Mrs. Cochran's screams were heard by Mr. and Mrs. Bascom, Mrs. Wangelin, and John Engler, an iceman who at the time was delivering ice to the Wangelin cottage. They all then went to the shed. Engler's testimony was to the effect that he heard Mrs. Cochran, while in the shed, say, ‘Daddy, why do you want to hurt me? We were so happy yesterday.’ To this remark there was no response. Bascom then said, ‘Don't hurt that woman,’ to which Cochran replied, ‘Don't get mixed up in this.’ Mrs. Cochran motioned to the bystanders not to interfere. In a minute or two Cochran and his wife left the shed and walked up the sidewalk arm in arm-lovingly, as one of the witnesses stated-into the house. A minute or so later shots were heard, and Mrs. Cochran and her mother, Mrs. Hall, who had assisted her since the birth of Mrs. Cochran's child, came out the rear door and walked in a staggering manner along the east side of the dwelling towards the front of the house. Mrs. Cochran was in the lead, carrying her baby. Before reaching the front of the house Mrs. Cochran staggered and fell, and Cochran, who remained in the house, was then seen to fire one or two more shots at her body.

There is no dispute in the evidence that Cochran immediately after firing the first three shots barricaded himself in the home and maintained an armed defensive, and for an hour or more there was a sort of desultory warfare between Cochran from inside the house and a large crowd outside, estimated from many hundreds to several thousands, in which 240 shots were fired into one room of the house, and in another room the walls were so badly riddled with shot that the holes could not be counted. During this warfare two police officers were wounded, the mother-in-law, Mrs. Hall, being mortally wounded by one of the three shots fired by Cochran while she was in the dwelling. Approximately three or four hours later, or at 1 o'clock of the same afternoon, Cochran was captured, following the explosion of tear bombs in the house thrown by officers. He was found behind the stove in the kitchen with four unexploded cartridges in his revolver.

There was no evidence that any cause for ill feeling had ever existed between plaintiff in error and his wife and no evidence of any previous quarrels or threats of violence. There was no apparent rational motive for the crime. The reason assigned by plaintiff in error in his conversation with the alienists was that he had been pursued by the Masons for many years, and that in carrying out their plans against him they had followed him from Tennessee to Louisiana and from Louisiana to Texas; that they had offered a reward of $1,000 for him; that a man got $1,000 to shoot at him, and that his wife had become associated with and was an agent of the Masons; that he did not want to believe it, but more and more he became convinced that she was a Masonic conspirator and an agent of theirs to do him harm, and when asked why he killed his wife he used a figure of speech to illustrate his meaning, saying, ‘If a rattlesnake was coiled at you, set and ready to spring, what would you do?’

[1] The assignment of errors consists of 18 points, but plaintiff in error in his brief relies on only 5 of these points, and as no reasons are urged in support of the other alleged errors they are waived. People v. Hohimer, 271 Ill. 515, 111 N. E. 599;Sullivan v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railway Co., 262 Ill. 317, 104 N. E. 707.

It is contended by plaintiff in error that the clerk of the circuit court of St. Clair county, from which the change of venue was allowed, failed to make a full transcript of the record and proceedings in the case and transmit the same, together with all the papers filed in the case, as required by the statute, and that it was not properly certified by the circuit clerk of St. Clair county. The clerk's certificate is not abstracted, and from an examination of the abstract, alone, it does not appear that there were any defects or omissions in the premises.

[2] Plaintiff in error contends that a challenge to the array of jurors should have been sustained by the court. The board of supervisors of Washington county, on December 4, 1923, at an adjourned session of the September, 1923, term, adopted a resolution ‘that the list hereto attached, being a list of not less than one-tenth of the legal voters of each township in Washington county, be and the same is hereby known as the petit jury list of Washington county, in accordance with section 1, chapter 78, of Smith-Hurd Revised Statutes of Illinois.’ A list of names was attached to this resolution, but the list was not read to the board of supervisors. The list was filed with the county clerk and by him copied into a book known as ‘Jury List Book No. 2.’ On the same day the following resolution was adopted by the board of supervisors:

‘Be it resolved by the board of supervisors of Washington county, Ill., that the committee on judiciary of this board be and is hereby authorized to select at such times as required, from the petit jury list of Washington county on file in the office of the county clerk, a number of persons equal to 100 for each trial term of the circuit court and other courts of record to be held during the succeeding year, to serve as petit jurors, as provided by section 2, chapter 78, of Smith-Hurd Revised Statutes of Illinois.’

Thereupon the committee on judiciary of the board of supervisors repaired to the office of the county clerk, took the book, ‘Jury List Book No. 2,’ and checked off on the book 400 names by placing a red check mark on the book opposite each one of said 400 names, and thereafter reported to the board of...