Reese v. State

• Citation: 151 S.W.2d 828
• Decision Date: 07 May 1941
• Docket Number: No. 21481.,21481.
• Parties: REESE v. STATE.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas. Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

151 S.W.2d 828

REESE v. STATE.

No. 21481.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

May 7, 1941.

Rehearing Denied June 18, 1941.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Appeal from District Court, Limestone County; H. F. Kirby, Judge.

Arlin F. Reese was convicted of murder, and he appeals.

Affirmed.

Norton Fox and L. E. Eubanks, both of Groesbeck, for appellant.

L. L. Geren, Co. Atty., and Clarence Ferguson and J. B. Engledow, Asst. Co. Attys., all of Groesbeck, Charles T. Banister Crim. Dist. Atty., of Corsicana, and Lloyd W. Davidson, State's Atty., of Austin, for the State.

GRAVES, Judge.

Appellant received the penalty of death by the verdict of a jury for the murder of Lizzie Reinhart, and he appeals.

The facts reveal that appellant, a mature man, had been married, and his wife had been committed to a hospital for the insane, and at the time of this alleged tragedy he was then and had been for a few years living with the deceased as man and wife. They were looked upon as such by some of their neighbors. The deceased had borne appellant one son, twenty-two months old at the time of the woman's death, and she was again pregnant, and there was taken from her dead body by the physician a full formed eight and one-half pound baby boy. Appellant was employed in delivering newspapers over a certain route each day, and lived with Lizzie Reinhart and the child in a house in Limestone County.

The body of Lizzie Reinhart was found wrapped up in a quilt by the side of the road in some Johnson grass on August 30, 1940, in Navarro County. Decomposition had set in at such time, and upon the performance of an autopsy upon her body a bullet was found in her head, it having passed through the cranium, and by a Caesarian section the unborn child was brought forth from her body. This body when found was clothed in a white nightgown, wrapped in a sheet and a blanket, and also a tacked comfort. There was a wound on the left side of her head, and the bullet was taken out at the right side of the head. It was a .22 calibre bullet.

It was claimed by the sheriff of Limestone County, Mr. Simmons, that upon a permission given him by appellant, on September 6, 1940, he went to appellant's home, on the road between Mexia and Tehuacana, and found some twine similar to twine found tied around the knees of the dead body, and also a mattress with two circles cut out of it, and the cotton in said circles was shown to have been removed, one place in said mattress being about a foot and a half across each way, and another circle near the above one, both cut, not torn, out of the mattress.

Mr. Robertson, a deputy sheriff, went out to appellant's home with the sheriff, and he found a .22 calibre pistol in a basket under some clothes in appellant's home. A State chemist found human blood in the home of appellant, and also blood on an automobile that was identified as that of the appellant. He also found blood in the cotton remaining in the mattress found in appellant's house.

There seemed to be some question as to the identity of the dead body, and four days after its burial it was exhumed and positively identified as that of Lizzie Reinhart.

There was also shown an insurance policy on the life of the deceased, taken out by appellant and payable to him upon the death of Elizabeth Reese, at the age of thirty-three years, taken out February 27, 1939.

The State introduced two confessions of appellant, both similar, but the latter one possibly going into more particulars of the alleged offense, and we set out the latter in its entirety:

"The State of Texas, County of Limestone.

"I, Arlin F. Reese, being under arrest and charged with murder, and being warned by Clarence Ferguson that I do not have to make any statement at all, and that any statement I make may be used in evidence against me on my trial for the offense concerning which this confession is herein made, do freely and without compulsion or persuasion make to the said Clarence Ferguson the following statement and confession:

"My name is Arlin F. Reese and I am 45 years old. I live in Limestone County out 3 miles west of Mexia, Texas. For about 3 years I have lived with Lizzie Reinhardt. She was not my wife and I had never married her. I have a boy 22 months old by Lizzie Reinhardt.

"On Wednesday morning, August 28, about 3 o'clock I got up and dressed and watered and fed my hogs and turned out some small chickens that I had fastened up. I came back in and got ready and left on the paper route as usual. I got through about 9:30 and came back home. The first thing that I done after I ate my food that morning was I helped peel and get ready a half bushel of pears. The rest of that day I did the usual things that are done around a place. Late that afternoon I went and got some ice. I went to bed about 9 o'clock Wednesday night.

"On or about 3 or 3:30 Thursday morning I got up and dressed and tended to everything as usual. Lizzie was awake at the time I got up and dressed. When I got through with tending to things outside, I came back in the house and Lizzie seemed to be asleep. I had been studying about leaving home on account of the condition that she was in and everything. I mean by this that I wasn't married. It popped in my mind then that I decided to murder her. Some day before then I had decided to do this. So that morning which was Thursday morning, August 29, 1940 between 4 and 5 o'clock I went over and unlocked my cedar chest and got that 22 target pistol, walked over to the vanity and got a shell off the top of it. I loaded the gun, walked through the dining room and kitchen into back screen in room through this room into her bedroom. I walked around to the side of the bed where she was laying and put the gun down about 6 or 8 inches of her left temple and fired the shot. She didn't move or speak a word afterwards. I then pulled the cover up over her head, pulled the shades down in her bedroom, got my baby and carried him out and put him in the back seat and went on my route as usual. This was the 22 months old baby.

"When I got off my route about 10 o'clock, I stopped over in Mexia for a little while and got home about 11 o'clock. I drove up by the side of my house in my car as usual, I got out and walked around the place to see if everything was all right. Everything outside was all right. I did not go in the house. I went and got back in my car and came back through town and went down to my Aunt's house on the south side of town on South Bonham Street. My Aunt's name is Mrs. Mollie Thomas. I stayed there and talked to her generally something around 1½ hours. I did not mention anything to her about that crime. Her husband was in the from bedroom asleep. He works at night. When I left Aunt Molly's I got in the car and come back through Mexia and went out the Groesbeck highway about a mile on this side of Forrest Glade schoolhouse. I turned off the highway and went toward the Reunion Ground to see John Pearson, a negro, bout some he owed me on a paper. He was gone from home at the time and I did not go on down to his house. Another negro told me that he was not at home. So then I went on toward the Reunion Grounds until I hit the Reunion Grounds road and turned back toward town and stopped at Jack Echols Store. I bought the baby soda water to drink. I stayed there about 15 or 20 minutes. It was getting around 4 o'clock at this time. I come back to Ballard Grocery and bought some cookies and candy and I think a bottle of milk. I stayed there in town until after night. I left and went back out home which was about 9 or 9:30 o'clock of Thursday, August 29, 1940.

"I drove in and parked the car by the side of the house, got out and since my baby was asleep I just left him in the back seat of the car. I tended to everything before I went and unlocked the door to go inside. I taken my flashlight and went through the rooms to see if anything was wrong in there. I stayed around there until about 10 or 10:30 and I went over to the bed where Lizzie was lieing on the bed, taken and rolled her up in the sheets and the comfort that was over her. It was a tacked comfort. I rolled her up in that comfort and I went and got the twine that was in a bucket in the back room, taken two pieces of twine and tied cover around the feet and head. I taken and loaded her in my two door 34 model Ford between the front and back seats in the floor. I went back and locked the doors, went out and got in my car and left.

"I crossed the overpass and went out East Milam until I hit Ross Avenue and turned north up Ross Avenue which intersect Highway 14. I went up highway 14 until I got to Richland. From Richland I went up highway 75 to the Y Club which is about 3 miles south of Corsicana. There I turned off Highway 75 and went towards Highway 31. I went up to the Magnolia pump station. I hit the car line and turned east and went a couple of blocks north and then I hit the car line again and turned back the same route I had went in. About the time I got to the pump station a car was following me and I slowed down and this car passed me just before I got to Highway 31. This car that passed me pulled up into a little road and they seen a truck parked in this little road and they commenced backing out. And when I seen this car backing out I whipped around them and crossed the railroad and came on back the way I went in. In going back toward the Y Club I passed a coupe car with about 3 people in it. I drove on pass them up on a little rise in the road and stopped and killed my motor and put my lights out and got out of my car and walked across the highway just over to my left. About the time I got over the highway I heard some one walking. It was a drunk man, so I looked around and he was near my car and I commenced talking to him. He wanted a cigarette. He and I rolled and smoked a cigarette apiece. He wanted me to carry him home. After I had given him about 2 cigarettes he hiked on toward town. So I got in my...