People v. Corey

• Decision Date: 22 November 1898
• Citation: 51 N.E. 1024,157 N.Y. 332
• Parties: PEOPLE v. COREY.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

157 N.Y. 332

51 N.E. 1024

PEOPLE

v.COREY.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Nov. 22, 1898.

Appeal from supreme court, trial term.

Michael Corey, alias Michael Kelley, was convicted of murder in the first degree; and he appeals from the judgment, and from an order denying his motion for a new trial. Reversed.

Upon a former appeal the judgment was reversed for various errors, none of which were repeated upon the second trial, which was before the same justice. 148 N. Y. 476, 42 N. E. 1066. The facts, so far as material, appear in the opinion.

Haight and Gray, JJ., dissenting.

Albert O. Briggs and John E. Smith, for appellant.

M. H. Kiley, Dist. Atty., for the People.

VANN, J.

The defendant was indicted for the murder of James George, an Indian, on the 27th of September, 1894, at the house of Orson Webb, in the town of Eaton, Madison county. This house was a shanty, 12 or 13 feet by 16, rudely built of boards nailed to four posts set in the ground, and covered with the same material. It had no cellar or foundation, and the rought plank floor had numerous apertures. There was but a single room, with no partitions, but one door, which was on the south side, and near the southwest corner, and but one window, which was on the west side. The structure was situated in the woods, remote from a highway, and was reached by a path leading through a pasture. At the time of the affray an old stove stood opposite the door, and in the northwest corner was a cupboard made of rough boards. On the south side of the room, and about four feet east of the door, was a shelf, near which was a butcherknife belonging to James George, thrust in a crack; and on the shelf was a common pocketknife, with two blades, which belonged to one of Webb's children. A table, some chairs, and two or three old beds resting on the floor, without bedsteads, completed the furniture. The beds consisted of straw ticks covered with soiled and ragged bedclothing, and the room and all things in it, including the people, were described by a physician as extremely filthy. In this room Orson Webb, Sarah, his wife, his two daughters, Susan and Libbie, aged respectively 16 and 18, and four younger children, besides James George and the defendant (ten human beings in all), lived and slept. These persons, with Cora Bennett, a niece of Mrs. Webb, were present when the crime in question is alleged to have been committed.

The defendant was attached to Susan Webb, and had some feeling towards George on account of his attentions to her. Each had recently made threats against the other on her account, although they had slept together, and had worked together in peace that fall. The threats made by George, although less frequent, where not less significant than those made by the defendant; for, but three or four days before the tragedy, he said that, if the defendant did not keep away from his girl (Susie Webb), he would cut his heart out with the knife that he held in his hand at the time. About three hours before the affray the defendant accepted the invitation of George to eat supper with him, and the two men ate and talked together as friends. During the afternoon Webb and the defendant had been engaged in erecting a woodshed in the form of a lean-to, and banking up the shanty for winter. They had a jug of beer, which was consumed by them, with the help of Cora Bennett and Susan and Libbie Webb. After supper, Susan suggested that they have something more to drink, and gave her father a dollar to go and get it. He went nearly two miles and back, and returned about 8 o'clock in the evening with another jug of beer, containing a gallon, and two pints of whisky. During his absence, Susan obtained from the pocket of George's coat, upon his suggestion, a pint of alcohol, which, after being diluted with water, was drunk by George, the defendant, and the girls. Half of the beer and whisky procured by Webb was drunk by the same persons, aided by Mrs. Webb. While every person in the room except Webb and the younger children was more or less intoxicated, the defendant and George drank the most, and the latter was the most affected. The party alternated in drinking beer and whisky, dancing during the interval to the music of Webb's violin; the two men being in their shirt sleeves. When Webb returned with the beer and whisky, Libbie was already asleep on one of the beds on the floor, and, as no explanation of the fact was given, it is not difficult to infer why she was overcome by sleep at that early hour. No partners were taken nor sets formed for the dance, which was described as a jig or skirt dance, and was performed by ‘jumping about and dancing around.’ After thus drinking and dancing for an hour or more, the orgies culminated in the transaction which is the subject of this appeal. Shortly after 9 o'clock Cora Bennett and Susan were sitting or lying on a bed on the south side of the room, and George was sitting beside them. The defendant was sitting in a chair on the west side of the room, south of the window, and Webb and his wife sat north of him. A lamp on the table furnished the only light. Webb testified that the defendant said to George, ‘Why can't you get up and sit in a chair, and not be sitting there on the floor?’ and that George replied, ‘I am doing no hurt here,’ but finally got up and began to dance with the little girl, Mary. After dancing a short time he crossed over to the west side of the room, where the defendant was sitting, had some words with him, went to the shelf, and stood there with Susan, when the defendant, who was still seated, asked him, ‘What are you doing there, talking to that girl?’ George replied, ‘Ain't I a right to talk to this little girl?’ whereupon the defendant said, ‘No,’ jumped towards George, and struck at him; but George pushed him off, and the defendant ‘dodged down to get under his arm,’ which was raised, and struck him six or seven times in the side.

Mrs. Webb swore that during the evening the defendant told her that he did not like the Indian, and that he would have trouble with him; that later, after the two men had had some words, the defendant jumped up and struck at George, who ‘guarded his blow off and knocked him back up against the door, and he came back again; and I did not see what he had in his hand, but he made a motion seven or eight times at his side.’ Susan Webb stated that, when the defendant spoke to George about sitting on the bed with the girls, George started to get up, but apprehending trouble, she took hold of his arm, told him to sit down and not have any fuss, whereupon he became quiet. Shortly after that, George went over to the other side of the room, and then came back to the shelf, while the defendant remained on the west side. The two men had some words, when the defendant arose from his chair and jumped towards George, who knocked him back against the door, whereupon she saw the defendant make motions towards George as if stabbing him. No other eye-witness of the affray was sworn, and the failure to call Cora Bennett was not accounted for, except by the suggestion of the defendant's counsel, that she was confined in a penal institution. The butcherknife was not disturbed, and no one saw either of the men take the other knife from the shelf; but it was seen there just before George passed from the west side of the room to the shelf, and was not seen afterwards. The defendant was not seen by the shelf, after the knife was last seen upon it, until he jumped towards George and was knocked against the door. The evidence tended to show that the defendant's shirt and trousers were badly torn on the occasion. The next morning one of his eyes was somewhat swollen, and there was a cut over it from a quarter to a half an inch in length. No one saw the knife in the defendant's hands at any time, but after he had made repeated motions towards George, as if stabbing him, George sank to the floor; and the defendant kicked at him, and went out of doors. Webb, upon discovering that George had been stabbed, followed the defendant out and asked, ‘What did you do with the knife that you cut Jim with?’ and the defendant replied, ‘I threw it back into the bushes. I only stabbed him with the little blade. It is only a flesh wound. He will get over it.’ He also said, according to Webb's statement, ‘When I fight with a man I calculate to whip that man, if I have to kill him.’ Webb returned to the house, and, upon examining George, found eight wounds, apparently made with the blade of a knife, upon the left side of his body. Six days later Geore died. The defendant, upon leaving the house, went to an adjoining farm, where he had worked, and stayed all night. The next day, when asked by an acquaintance where he got that cut over the eye, he replied that he got into a fight at Webb's the night before, and stabbed an Indian three or four times. He was then told that he had got himself into a scrape, whereupon he left for the city of New York, where he formerly resided. While there he wrote a letter to Susan Webb, in which he said: ‘Susie, I can't tell you how sorry I am for getting in that trouble and having to leave you; but you are as much to blame as I am, for, if you had not carried on the way you did that night, I would not have got a-fighting with that God-damned Indian; but never mind; it may be all for the best, Susie. After I had the trouble that night, I went down to Ira Spaulding's and stayed there until morning and was going to go to work for him that day, but I was afraid Jim would get a warrant our for me; so I made up my mind the best thing I could do was to come to New York until it would blow over. * * * Remember, Susie, I love you with all my heart, and shall never forget the way you treated me; let it be good or bad, I cannot help but love you. Remember, also, that I told you that I would kill any one that ever tried to come between us, and so, Susie, so help me God, I will; and that is why...