Sanders v. State, 5367
| Decision Date | 14 October 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 5367,5367 |
| Citation | 245 Ark. 321,432 S.W.2d 467 |
| Parties | C. L. SANDERS, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Donald Joe Adams, Yellville, and William S. Walker, Harrison, for appellant.
Joe Purcell, Atty. Gen., Don Langston, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, for appellee.
C. L. Sanders, appellant herein, was charged with murder in the first degree by Information filed on December 26, 1967, the charge being that he murdered Hughlin Dean Ramey on Christmas Day of the same year. Subsequently, upon motion of the Prosecuting Attorney, the charge was reduced to second degree murder; on trial, the jury returned a verdict finding appellant guilty of the crime of voluntary manslaughter, and his punishment was fixed at a term of two years in the State Penitentiary. From the judgment so entered, appellant brings this appeal. For reversal, it is first asserted that the verdict of the jury was contrary to the evidence, and second, that the court erred in refusing to permit testimony offered by appellant concerning prior specific acts of aggression and misconduct toward others, appellant asserting that this showed that the deceased was a violent person.
The evidence reflected that Ramey, on the date of his death, was living on property owned by Sanders, such property being located across the road from a neighbor named Alan Gentry. Ramey had moved to the Sanders place about two weeks before, and in fact, had worked for Sanders on previous occasions. Late on the afternoon of Christmans Day, Sanders, accompanied by Friday Robinson and Sam Willis, drove to the home of Gentry to see about a hog. Gentry testified that he could smell alcohol on Sanders' breath while they were talking. According to this witness, as Sanders started driving back down the road, Ramey came out of his house, stopping the Sanders truck, and Gentry heard Ramey ask Sanders for a drink of whiskey. He did not hear the reply, but did hear Ramey say to Sanders, 'I know you have got some whiskey.' The Sanders truck was stopped right in front of the Gentry house, and was about 30 feet from a car owned by Ramey which was parked by Ramey's yard gate on his side of the road. Gentry went on into his home.
Mitchell Gentry, 15-year-old son of Alan, testified that he was looking out the window of the home, and saw the Sanders truck stop close to Ramey's car in the road between the Gentry and Ramey houses. Ramey was talking to the men in the Sanders truck. The witness stated:
'Well, I was standing over there in the window and they come down and stopped and Hughlin was talking to them a while then he got a pump and went back over and was pumping up his tire, and pumped a while and then straightened up and then C. L. stepped around and shot him.'
The pump was given to Ramey by Sanders. Young Gentry stated that the former, after obtaining the pump, put air in the tire. 'After he pumped up his tire, he just raised up and there was a shot.' The witness said that appellant and Ramey were about 8 or 10 steps apart, and that Ramey was standing by his car when this happened. Ramey had nothing in his hands when this occurred, and Sheriff Waggoner of Newton County testified that an examination of the premises revealed a tire pump, still hooked onto the tire, and a screw driver and hub cap on the ground. No weapons were found, nor was there any gun in the Ramey automobile. Several witnesses testified that they smelled alcohol on Sanders immediately following the shooting, but no one indicated that he was drunk.
Sanders contended that his life had been threatened by Ramey on several occasions, and Ramey stopped appellant's truck on Christmas afternoon, inquiring if he had a drink of whiskey. Appellant replied that he did not, and was called a vile name by Ramey, after which the latter borrowed a pump from Sanders for the purpose of inflating a flat tire. Sanders said that during the time Ramey was pumping, he was cursing, and saying, 'I'm going to have to kill you.' Appellant asserted that he knew Ramey kept a loaded shotgun on the back seat of his automobile, and he said that when the latter reached for the back...
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State v. Jacoby, 59756
...663 (1890); State v. Abarr, supra, 39 Iowa at 189; State v. Griffin, 99 Ariz. 43, 47, 406 P.2d 397, 399 (1965); Sanders v. State, 245 Ark. 321, 324, 432 S.W.2d 467, 469 (1968); People v. Flores, 539 P.2d 1236, 1238 (Colo.1975); Rolle v. State, 314 So.2d 167, 168 (Fla.App.1975); Henderson v.......
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Kagebein v. State
...in time, I would reverse and remand for a new trial on the other grounds stated in the majority opinion. 1 As recently as Sanders v. State, 245 Ark. 321, 432 S.W.2d 467, a second degree murder case, we rejected an assignment of error based upon the trial court's rejection of testimony conce......
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State v. Miranda
...testimony, excluding evidence of prior convictions and other specific acts of violence unknown to the defendant. 1 Sanders v. State, 245 Ark. 321, 324, 432 S.W.2d 467; People v. Flores, 539 P.2d 1236, 1238 (Colo.); State v. Jacoby, supra, 838; Henderson v. State, 234 Ga. 827, 829-30, 218 S.......
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