Porter v. State

• Decision Date: 24 May 1941
• Parties: PORTER et al. v. STATE.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 171

151 S.W.2d 171

PORTER et al. v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

May 24, 1941.

Error to Circuit Court, Madison County; Frank L. Johnson, Judge.

Lee Willie Porter and Carl Leonard Cole were convicted of murder in the first degree, with punishment of death by electrocution, and they bring error.

Judgment affirmed and date of execution set.

W. N. Key, W. P. Moss, Jack Manhein, and Maurice Nichols, all of Jackson, for plaintiffs in error.

Nat Tipton, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

McKINNEY, Justice.

Lee Willie Porter and Carl Leonard Cole, referred to herein as defendants, have appealed to this Court from a conviction for murder in the first degree, their punishment being fixed at death by electrocution.

While several errors have been assigned on behalf of defendants, upon the argument of the case in this Court counsel virtually conceded that they were properly convicted, but made an earnest appeal for a recommendation to the Governor for a commutation of punishment to life imprisonment, due to the ignorance, lack of opportunity for a normal development, and the youthfulness of the defendants.

Upon a careful reading of the record, we find that the defendants are clearly guilty, were ably represented by counsel, and were accorded a fair trial by an impartial jury.

Due to the gravity of the crime, we will briefly review the main facts. The offense for which the defendants were convicted was the murder of Grant Vernon on the night of August 9, 1940. The deceased was the night watchman at the extensive plant of the Coca Cola Bottling Works in Jackson, and had been so employed for some time. There were some six or seven stations on the premises, including one at the garage where the trucks of the Bottling Works were parked, and it was the duty of deceased to punch a time clock every hour at each of these stations.

The Bottling Works employed a number of salesmen who left the plant each morning in trucks loaded with Coca Cola for delivery to its customers. These salesmen returned in the late afternoon or early evening, checked in with the deceased, and turned over the proceeds from sales to him, which he placed in the cash drawer in the office. This drawer was kept locked and deceased carried the key to it in one of his pockets. On the day in question one of the salesmen, Fred Milam, returned to the plant at 5.10 P. M. and delivered to deceased $49.18 in cash. Another, Ed Stevenson, returned about 5.30 P. M. and turned over to deceased $136 in cash. A third salesman, Chester Butler, returned to the plant about eight o'clock and delivered his proceeds of sales to deceased in the sum of $133.50, including $8 in checks. Butler left the plant at nine-thirty-five. About five-thirty the next morning deceased was discovered at the back end of the premises, near the rear of one of the trucks, seated on the ground. He was unconscious and died about noon of that day without ever having regained consciousness. He had been struck in the head twice with some heavy instrument, which the attending physician testified caused his death. The keys of deceased had been taken from him and were found in the cash drawer from which about $300 in money had been taken. The holster in which deceased carried his pistol had been torn off and was lying near him, as was his time clock. There were pools of blood on the ground. The premises of the Bottling Works was inclosed with a wire fence 8 feet high. The gate through which the premises was entered was kept locked at night.

According to the confessions of defendants, they procured a heavy iron bar at Tannenbaum's junk yard, 7¾ pounds in weight and 32 inches in length, climbed over this 8-foot fence, secreted themselves in or about the garage for the purpose of knocking deceased in the head and robbing him, and just after he punched his clock at the garage station struck him two blows with this iron bar, took his keys and pistol, entered the building and opened the cash drawer with these keys, extracted the money therefrom, left the building, threw the iron bar in the cemetery, located across the street from the Bottling Works, divided the money, and then separated. Among the funds taken from the cash drawer were two packages of nickels which had been procured from a local bank and placed in the cash drawer in the paper in which they were wrapped by the bank. This paper bore the stamp of the Coca Cola Bottling Works.

In some way not definitely disclosed by the record suspicion was directed to Porter. It appears that his wife was spending a considerable amount of money, much more than her economic condition would justify. Also, the officers had information that Porter had lost some money in a crap game. In any event, Porter was arrested and carried to the city jail on the afternoon of August 10, 1940. At the time of his arrest Porter had $50 in money on his person. Beginning about ten-thirty that night and continuing intermittently until four o'clock the next morning Porter was interrogated by the officers. At the hour last named Porter stated to the officers that he had seen his codefendant in the vicinity of the Coca Cola plant with some money sacks and that Cole had given him $10 not to tell on him. Shortly thereafter the officers accompanied Porter to the place where he lived where, under the floor of the coalhouse, Porter produced $38 in money, including the two packages of nickels referred to above. From this same hiding place Porter produced the 45-caliber pistol which was identified as the one that the Bottling Works had furnished the deceased. Porter then made a full confession, telling the officers where they had deposited the iron bar in the cemetery, and where it was discovered the next morning by the sexton of the cemetery. This sexton testified that he passed the exact spot where the bar was found late on the preceding afternoon and it was not there.

When Cole was arrested he strenuously denied his guilt, but when confronted with Porter, who repeated the occurrences of the night of August 9, 1940, Cole likewise confessed. Both confessions were reduced to writing and verified by the...