Shoemake v. Davis, 45098

• Decision Date: 02 December 1968
• Docket Number: No. 45098,45098
• Parties: Billy Burl SHOEMAKE v. Randle Vernon DAVIS and Edna Mae Turnage Davis.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 420

216 So.2d 420

Billy Burl SHOEMAKE v. Randle Vernon DAVIS and Edna Mae Turnage Davis.

No. 45098.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Dec. 2, 1968.

Lawrence D. Arrington, Hattiesburg, for appellant.

Williams & Williams, Poplarville, for appellee.

BRADY, Justice:

This appeal is prosecuted from two decrees entered on May 18, 1967, which authorized the adoption of a five year old minor boy, Ronnie Maurice Davis, and a three year old minor girl, Wanda Christine Davis, by Randle Vernon Davis and Edna Mae Turnage Davis, the maternal grandparents of the minors, and which denied the appellant, Billy Burl Shoemake, the father of said minor children, who is serving a life sentence for murder in the State Penitentiary, the care and custody of said minor children. Ronnie Maurice Shoemake's surname was changed by the decree of the chancellor to Davis, as was also the surname of his sister.

The record discloses these pertinent facts. On March 15, 1962, appellant married Rita Yvonne Davis and of this union Ronnie Maurice Shoemake and Wanda Christine Shoemake were born. On April 30, 1964, Rita Yvonne, appellant's wife, was murdered. In 1966 appellant was indicted for the murder of his wife and pled guilty to said charge and was sentenced to life imprisonment at the State Penitentiary where he is now confined. The minor children involved in this suit were in the care and custody of the appellant's parents, Mr. Harvey Shoemake and Mrs. Elma Shoemake, forty-eight and forty-six years of age respectively. On September 22, 1964, appellant instituted suit for divorce stating under oath that he and Rita 'finally separated on April 30, 1964,' but that 'during the time the parties lived and resided together as husband and wife, he did and performed each and every duty he owed unto the defendant as a dutiful and faithful husband.' He charged as grounds for divorce that his wife was guilty of habitual cruel and inhuman treatment. On September 19, 1964, the appellant signed the affidavit attached to the bill of complaint and among other statements declared 'that the cause or causes for divorce as stated in the original bill of complaint and all other averments of the complaint are true and correct as therein alleged.'

Immediately after the entry of the divorce decree on October 20, 1964, appellant married Mary Caston on October 31, 1964. The record discloses that the two minor children concerned herein spent a considerable portion of the time with their paternal grandparents though some time was spent in the company of their father and stepmother. The testimony of Mary Caston Shoemake, who was divorced from appellant, presented in minute detail the cruel mistreatment and punishment which Ronnie Maurice, when a little over three years of age, received from his paternal grandfather, Harvey Shoemake, and his uncle, Tommy Shoemake. The mistreatment was or...