Roberts v. The State Of Ga.

• Citation: 3 Ga. 310
• Decision Date: 31 August 1847
• Docket Number: No. 48.,48.
• Parties: Montgomery Roberts, plaintiff in error. vs. The State of Georgia, defendant in error.
• Court: Supreme Court of Georgia

3 Ga. 310

Montgomery Roberts, plaintiff in error. vs. The State of Georgia, defendant in error.

No. 48.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

AUGUST TERM, 1847.

Indictment for an assault with intent to murder. Tried before Judge Floyd. In Bibb Superior Court. May Term, 1847.

The prisoner was convicted, and sentenced to four years' hard labour in the Penitentiary.

The defence set up on the trial, was mainly the insanity of the prisoner at the time of the commission of the offence charged.

The bill of indictment alleged the assault to have been made upon one John Knight, in the county of Bibb, on the 18th day of May, 1847.

Mrs. Maria Julian, the first witness sworn for the State, testified that she was in the school room, and heard the prisoner come into the house making very great noise, cursing and swearing. Witness' mother tried to quiet him, and to get him to go into the kitchen; whereupon the prisoner being in great rage and making a great noise, tried to strike her, and also attempted to strike witness. She ran from him into the front porch, and he followed on after her, still attempting to strike her. She ran back into the house, and her mother locked the front door, when prisoner began to beat upon the door, and swearing at the same time very loudly. They also locked the back door; prisoner getting to it, beat upon it and split it, but did not break the lock. Witness then ran into her room, and raising the window, called Mr. Graybill. Witness then saw prisoner standing in the kitchen door, with a gun in his hand; she was very much frightened, and put the window down. Prisoner was witness' cousin, and was intoxicated at the time; she had known him a long time, and had often seen him in sprees, and intoxicated; he was usually obedient to witness' mother when she spoke to him, before this instance. Prisoner was a steady man when not intoxicated, and always behaved himself well when about her house, until recently; for the last two or three months, he had acted very strangely. Prisoner had spoken very strangely, and in a very insinuating manner to her, and that his strange conduct and language to her, was in reference to her refusal to marry him; about six or seven weeks before, he had asked her to marry him, which she refused.

By "prisoner's strange conduct, " witness meant his perseverance after her refusal to marry him. It was after her refusal to marry, that he spoke and acted so strangely towards her.

John Knight, in behalf of the State, testified, that he was at Mrs. Julian\'s on the day of the difficulty. It was eleven o\'clock, A. M., when witness went to Mrs. Julian\'s. He found the prisoner there with a gun in his hands. Witness went to the door of the house, and prisoner told witness to go back, or he would shoot him. Witness then returned, and prisoner came out of the kitchen. Prisoner then got over the fence, and witness followed him. Witness was about twenty feet from the prisoner, when taking deliberate aim, he snapped the gun at witness. Prisoner then took down the gun and cocked it again, and snapped it a second time at witness. Prisoner then went to the fence, and set the gun down, when Mr. Graybill jerked up the gun as soon as prisoner put it down, and carried it into the house, and returned.

The prisoner then fell down beside the fence, and commenced crying and sobbing, as if crazy. Witness made some remark to him, when he jumped up and kicked witness, and then fell down again. The gun was loaded, &c. Witness heard prisoner abusing Mrs. Julian and her mother. Prisoner said, standing in the door, Oh, you pale faced bitch, how dare you baffle my love thus far; he also called them "whores." The gun was shot off directly after the snapping at him.

James Sims, on the part of the State, testified, that he was present, saw prisoner snap the gun at Knight at the distance of about twenty feet.

Witness loaded the gun himself, before prisoner got hold of it, with powder and shot, which were between the size of bird and squirrel shot.

The testimony on the part of the State here closed.

Several witnesses were introduced in behalf of the prisoner to prove insanity, and others by the State, to rebut that proof.

Immediately preceding the difficulty, prisoner was furious, and appeared to be drunk; he attempted to break into the house where one of the witnesses, Mrs. Julian was, and soon after got hold of a gun and attempted to shoot Knight. For the two or three months previously he had acted strangely; before then, he was steady when not intoxicated. He had proposed marriage to Mrs. Julian, who was his cousin, which was rejected, and from that time his strange conduct commenced.

The witness Freeman, testified that the witness had worked for him and a Mr. Roberts, for the last year or two. and for the last six weeks he had worked in the same shop with witness, and witness thought his conduct very strange; about that time he wrote strangeletters to witness, and put them in his way. The first was in reference to a lady, whose name was not mentioned, requesting witness to interfere in his behalf; the others were of the same character; their contents were very disjointed; the last was written about two weeks before the difficulty. All of them were destroyed except the last. The conversation of prisoner while in the shop was also very irregular; he would frequently break off from the subject of conversation, and from his work, and commence speaking of a lady. His conduct during that time was altogether different from what it had been previously. On a certain Wednesday during that time, his conduct was very strange. Witness asked prisoner for a tool which he called a "board iron;" he could not find it, but asked witness for a piece of white paper. Witness gave him a half sheet of letter-paper, when prisoner asked him for a sheet that was not ruled, which was furnished. He then wrote upon the paper and put it into his hat, and informed witness that he guessed the "board iron" was in the hat, and then ran out of the shop. Witness upon looking into the hat saw only the piece of paper. In about an hour the prisoner returned, and seemed to desire witness to see the paper, and wrapped it around witness\' pen, and put it in the cash book. Witness examined the paper, and the following were its contents, viz: "S. Freeman; Gin; Rum; Whiskey; Brandy. Mixed Liquors are the ruin of any body, the only hope left, I have, is in suicide." Part of his name was signed to it. Prisoner then left the shop, and afterwards returned with a small phial, and something resembling a powder wrapped in a small package. He poured the contents of the phial into a tumbler, retired to the back part of the shop where he remained a half hour, and then set the contents of the tumbler on the fire, the heat of which broke the tumbler; he then got a wineglass and put the liquid in it, acting very strangely over it; and finally he put the powders in and drank it. He then left the shop and ran down the alley as before, and returned with a small pickle jar in his hand, which appeared to contain whiskey; he had a cigar in his mouth and a half plug of tobacco in his hand. Witness asked him what he had in the jar, whereupon he threw it down and broke it, and threw down his cigar also, exclaiming, "Death and destruction to mean liquor and bad cigars!" Prisoner continued to act thus strangely for the balance of the week, and on Saturday witness discharged him, which was about ten days before the difficulty. On the day before the difficulty, prisoner returned towitness\'s shop, when witness asked him to sit down. Prisoner spoke constantly in a kind of soliloquy about some love affair, complaining of the ladies\' deceiving or disappointing him, and then speaking affectionately of them; he then left the shop. Prisoner acted in this strange and irregular manner when perfectly sober, though he might have drank when witness did not know it, but usually when he took a drink it threw him. During the time prisoner acted thus strangely, what work he did was done as well as before.

Mr. Roberts testified, that he had noticed the conduct of the prisoner for the six weeks alluded to by the other witnesses, and that he had acted in a very strange and foolish manner. Prisoner asked this witness what he thought people said of him, prisoner; witness replied, he did not know; prisoner then said that people said, that he, prisoner, was deranged, and asked witness what he thought; witness replied, that he acted very strangely, and must either have turned fool, or was drunk. Prisoner said, he was not drunk, and to prove it, bowed his breath in witness's face. If prisoner had been drunk, witness would have known it, as he could always tell when prisoner was drunk. Prisoner said they (the people) did not look to him, as they used to, and he would tell witness what was the mater with him; he was just beginning to know something; he was not drinking then; and he said he was not a fool, but just beginning to get some sense. This occurred two or three weeks before the difficulty. This witness testified to other strange conduct of the prisoner; such as that he appeared strangely; that he had written witness foolish notes. Witness testified that the last work he had done for him, was done very well.

Mr. Jones testified, that prisoner's conduct while boarding at his house, a short time before the difficulty, was very strange; he would generally be up till 12 o'clock at night, and sometimes as late as two or three in the morning, writing, and walking his room, and tearing up his writing and talking to himself; his conduct was so strange, that witness asked him, aside, what was the matter with him; when he replied, that he knew of nothing any more than he was getting his eyes open, that he had begun to learn sense. Prisoner said that he had been sleeping a long time, that he had just waked up, and he was going to do better than he ever had done; witness asked him how? he replied, that he...