People v. Rogers

• Decision Date: 12 June 1908
• Citation: 192 N.Y. 331,85 N.E. 135
• Parties: PEOPLE v. ROGERS.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

192 N.Y. 331

85 N.E. 135

PEOPLE

v.ROGERS.

Court of Appeals of New York.

June 12, 1908.

Appeal from Supreme Court, Trial Term, Orange County.

Charles H. Rogers was convicted of murder in the first degree, and he appeals. Affirmed.

Herbert B. Royce, for appellant.

Thomas C. Rogers, Dist. Atty., for the State.

WILLARD BARTLETT, J.

The defendant was indicted on the 16th day of January, 1906, for the crime of murder in the first degree, committed by shooting Fred R. Onley with a revolver, in the town of Wallkill, Orange county, on the 6th day of October, 1905. He was arraigned on May 11, 1907, when he pleaded not guilty. Subsequently he added to this plea a specification that at the time of the commission of the crime in question he did not have sufficient intelligence and self-control to understand the nature and quality of the acts committed by him and to refrain from the commission of said acts, and that at said time he was mentally incapable and in a state of insanity. The trial began on the 21st day of October, 1907, at a Trial Term of the Supreme Court in Orange county, and ended on the 28th with a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. From the judgment rendered upon this verdict the defendant has appealed to this court.

The scene of the homicide of which the defendant was accused was the Onley farm, which is situated on a highway in the town of Wallkill, about three miles north of the city of Middletown. There were living at this farm, just previous to the homicide, five persons: Fred R. Onley, a bachelor, aged about 60 years; Willis Onley, his brother, a widower, who was some years younger; Mrs. Georgia Ingerick, who had recently entered upon the duties of a housekeeper for the two brothers, in consequence of the decease of Willis Onley's wife; Lulu Ingerick, a girl about 15 years old at the time of the trial, a daughter of Mrs Ingerick; and Alice Ingerick, another daughter, nine years of age. At 8 o'clock on the morning of October 6, 1905, Lulu Ingerick left the Onley farm to spend the day in Middletown. At that time all the members of the household were alive and well. When she returned at about half-past 5 o'clock on the afternoon of the same day her little sister lay dead in the cellar of the farm house with her head crushed by some blunt instrument; her mother lay insensible in the horse barn back of the house, her face bruised and bloody and her body partly covered with straw or hay; and the two Onley brothers (as was subsequently ascertained) lay dead in a piece of woods to the north of the house, both manifestly having been shot to death by means of a revolver. The condition of things at the house and also the condition of the clothing of the Onley brothers indicated that the perpetrator of the crime was actuated by purposes of plunder. The bedding on the beds had been torn out of place; a drawer had been pulled out of a bureau and thrown down on the floor; in the attic was a valise which had been cut open, and there were other signs of disorder. The pockets of the Onleys were found turned inside out and emptied of their contents, and the watches which they were known to have carried were missing. Mrs. Ingerick was in such a physical condition as to be unable to give any explanation as to how she came to be where she was found; she remembered only that it was about noon a stranger had come to the farm saying that some one was hurt up in the fields, and had asked her for a basin of water and a cloth. She got a cloth in accordance with his request, and went to the well near the wagon house for a pail of water, but at that point her recollection ceased. She could remember nothing that had happened afterward on that day. The defendant lived with his wife and children in the city of Middletown. He left home at 7 o'clock on the morning of October 6, 1905, and never returned. He was arrested in Los Angeles, Cal., in April, 1907; and was brought to New York by the sheriff of Orange county, a deputy sheriff, and the chief of police of the city of Middletown. In the course of the railway journey he made a series of oral statements to these officers in relation to the homicides at the Onley farm, and, finally, at their instance, signed the following confession, which substantially embodied what he had previously stated by word of mouth:

‘On Erie train near Corey, Pa., En Route from Los Angeles, Cal., to Orange Co., N. Y. To whom it may concern: I, Charles H. Rogers, do hereby make the following statement relative to the circumstances in connection with the deaths of Willis and Fred Onley and Alice Ingerick, which occurred on October 6, 1905. On the morning of Oct. 6, 1905, I left my home at 5 Oak street, Middletown, N. Y., at some time between seven and eight o'clock a. m., going up Washington street to South and then out West Main to Hanford street; on reaching the corner of Hanford street and West Main street I boarded a trolly car bound for the State Hospital. Then I alighted at the corner of Lake avenue and Olive street and took to the Erie tracks, and walked westward until I arrived at a point on the said Erie Road known as ‘Hogback.’ I left said track at a point just east of the overhead bridge leading to the Fish Farm, passing through a piece of woods owned by one Nora Corwin. I walked through said woods and crossed the highway leading to the Fish and Onley farms at a point near the top of the hill and between said bridge and where my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Rogers, reside. After doing so I passed on to a piece of woods owned by said Nora Corwin west of said highway. I continued on through Frank Fish's woods, also through another piece of woods owned by Mr. Horace Beaks. Then I crossed over the hill to the Onley farm. This was about 9 o'clock a. m. I saw Willis Onley in the barnyard. I asked him when Fred would get back from taking the milk. He said, ‘I don't know, but he ought to be back pretty soon.’ I remained there in the barnyard and talked with Willis until Fred returned about fifteen or twenty minutes later. I asked them to go to the woods with me to help get a man. I passed myself off as a detective. The three of us got in the milk wagon that Fred had just drove in with and went up to the woods driving to the corner of the field by the woods. While Willis held the team Fred went down into the woods with me. I shot Fred but I don't remember how many times. Willis came down on hearing the shots and passed about one hundred and fifty feet by me when I shot Willis once. Then I went through the pockets of the men and secured two watches and sixteen dollars in cash. A pocketbook which I took from Fred's body after taking out the contents—I hid the pocketbook in the stone wall where Willis stopped with the team in the corner of the open lot. Then I drove the team back down to the house, where I unhitched the horses and put them in the barn. After doing so I went in and told Mrs. Ingerick that Fred had been kicked by a horse. Mrs. Ingerick returned to the barn with me and went in the horse stables. I followed her into the far end of the said stables and when her back was turned I struck her over the head with the iron gas pipe which i had previously hidden in the woods. After I struck her I covered her up in the horse stall with hay. I then went to the house, and as I entered saw Alice Ingerick in the kitchen, and I sent her down cellar to close the outside cellar door. I followed her down cellar, and when she arrived about half way across the cellar I struck her over the head with the same pipe I had struck Mrs. Ingerick with, and which I had carried from the barn to the house. I ransacked the house, but found no money. I took nothing from the house. I heard some one drive up to the house while I was upstairs. I saw two men from the attic window in front of the wagon house. They had a wagon something like a buckboard. When I saw the men outside through the window I left the house by the kitchen door and went out the back way, and went over the hill toward the woods through the orchard. I did not know the girl was in the house when I went in after striking Mrs. Ingerick. I went through the woods to the Erie Railroad, and jumped a freight train and rode to Otisville. I remained there until night and took the Orange County Express to Port Jervis. I remained at the Delaware House that same night, registering at the Delaware House under the name of Smith. The next night, Saturday, I remained at a hotel on the street facing the railroad. The morning following my arrival at Port Jervis I sold one of the watches at a hotel situate on the street where the railroad crossing is located. Received four dollars for it. The other watch was stolen from me in a Port Jervis saloon not far from where I sold the other watch. The revolver I threw away up along the street by the railroad track. I also threw away what cartridges I had left. I threw the revolver and cartridges away because I heard some one say the authorities were looking for some one, and I did so through fear. If found on me I would be suspected and arrested. I left Port Jervis Sunday night, October 8, 1905, after buying a ticket to Huntington, Indiana. My idea was to go to Chicago, but did not go through because I did not have money enough for a ticket all the way. I stayed in Huntington a week or a little over, and then went on to Chicago ‘blind baggage’ or beating my way. Here I worked for ten months for a man by the name of Pulsifer at Glenwood, twenty-three miles from Chicago. I left Chicago, September 22, 1906, for California, going first to San Francisco, where I remained one day. Then went thirty miles from Madera to work on the Madera Sugar Pine Farm, working there one month. I then entered the employ of Mace Bros., proprietors of the Yosemite Hotel at Madera. I was there two months. Then went on south to Fresno, staying one night and next day went to Bakerfield, staying there one night also. The day following...