Smith v. Commonwealth

• Decision Date: 22 March 1929
• Citation: 228 Ky. 710,15 S.W.2d 458
• Parties: SMITH v. COMMONWEALTH.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

15 S.W.2d 458

228 Ky. 710

SMITH v. COMMONWEALTH.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky

March 22, 1929

Appeal from Circuit Court, Johnson County.

Mercereau Smith was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, and he appeals. Reversed.

M. O Wheeler, of Paintsville, and W. A. Daugherty, of Pikeville for appellant.

J. W Cammack, Atty. Gen., and S. H. Brown, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the Commonwealth.

DRURY C.

On his trial for the murder of Arthur Leslie, Mercereau Smith was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, and his punishment fixed at confinement in the penitentiary for 13 years. He has appealed.

This killing occurred on the night of Saturday, September 11, 1926. Smith and some others were preparing to leave Johnson county and to secure employment elsewhere. Smith seems to have had some sort of grudge against Arthur Leslie, growing out of the sale of a pistol. He seemed to want to settle this score before leaving. There had been a lot sale that day, and Smith was at the sale inquiring for Leslie. Some time after nightfall, Smith, Sid Conley, Hoss Hager, and Shug Bays got into an automobile driven by Harvey Maynard. They were apparently starting out on a wild party. They drove first to the house of one Rhoda Hitchcock, and somewhere near that point they got a half gallon of whisky. They also got a quart of whisky at or near one Fairchilds. They then came back to Van Lear Junction, and, after they had been there a while, they started out the Mayo trail. They were short of gasoline. The places where they might have obtained gasoline in Van Lear Junction were closed, and some one suggested that there was a tractor up the road, that they could get some gasoline out of it, and they started out for that purpose. On the way, they passed Arthur Leslie, whose car was parked on the roadside. They did not stop, but some of the party threw an orange at those with Leslie. They did not succeed in getting much gasoline out of the tractor, and presently returned. When they got to where Leslie's car was parked, they stopped, and some of them undertook to assist Leslie in getting his car started. He had taken the carbureter off of it and was standing in front of the car, examining the carbureter by the light of the headlights. They found that some part of it was stopped up. While Maynard and the others were endeavoring to assist Leslie in getting his car started, Smith had gone to the back of Leslie's car and found a woman sitting in it, with her face covered by a paper or something, which Smith pulled away. Thereupon she struck at him and called him a s ---- of a b ----. This angered him, and he shook her and undertook to make her retract her statement, but she only repeated it. She got out of the car or was jerked out of the car-it is not very clear which-and ran around the car a time or two in her efforts to escape from Smith, and, according to her, he pursued her and knocked her down a time or two. She asked Leslie to protect her, but Leslie said he could do nothing with Smith. Smith then undertook to put the woman into Maynard car, but the members of the party who were with him protested, and, while they were arguing with Smith, the woman fled. Smith then came up to the group that was working on the carbureter and asked Leslie who that woman was, and, when Leslie answered, "I don't know," Smith said, "You are a damn liar." Leslie appealed to Smith's companions to make him let him alone, whereupon Smith said to Leslie, "You are a damn dirty bastard," and he seized Leslie and shook him. Leslie again appealed to Smith's companions to make him let him alone, whereupon Smith said, "You sold me a gun and would not give it to me, and I want it." Leslie said "It is up at the house and you can go and get it now." Smith said, "I won't have it now after you have worn it out." One word brought on another and Smith undertook to strike Leslie, whereupon Sid Conley caught Smith and prevented his accomplishing his purpose. Smith freed himself from Conley and undertook again to strike Leslie, and Conley caught him again. He freed himself a second time and seized Leslie by the shirt collar and struck him one blow with his fist on the side of his neck. Leslie fell and grunted. Maynard by that time was ready to leave with his car, and all the party climbed into Maynard's car and left the scene and within a few minutes, got in another car, and left the state. In the course of an hour or so, some one passing discovered Leslie, and upon examination it was found that he was dead. Physicians were summoned. They examined him and pronounced him dead, and one of them testifies that his neck was broken.

Smith sought a new trial upon nine different grounds, some of which have been abandoned. He is contending now that the court erred in instructing the jury, and we shall take up the different instructions of which he is complaining and dispose of them. Instruction I is:

"If the jury believe from the evidence in this case, beyond a reasonable doubt, that in this county and before the finding of the indictment herein, the defendant herein willfully, and not in his necessary or apparently necessary self defense, struck Arthur Leslie with his fist with intent to inflict a fatal injury and under circumstances where such striking, if any, was reasonably calculated to produce a fatal injury, and that said Leslie presently died thereby, you will find the defendant guilty-guilty of willful murder if the striking was done with malice aforethought-guilty of voluntary manslaughter if done not with malice aforethought, but in sudden affray or sudden heat or passion, and upon provocation ordinarily calculated to excite passion beyond control. If you find defendant guilty of willful

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