Staiger v. State

• Decision Date: 14 February 1916
• Docket Number: 17744
• Citation: 70 So. 690,110 Miss. 557
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: STAIGER v. STATE

70 So. 690

110 Miss. 557

STAIGER v. STATE

No. 17744

Supreme Court of Mississippi

February 14, 1916

APPEAL from the circuit court of Forest county. HON. J. M. ARNOLD Judge.

Joseph Staiger was convicted of murder and appeals.

Case reversed and remanded.

S.E Travis and E. A. Anderson and Stone Deavours, for appellant.

Ross A Collins, Attorney-General, for the state.

OPINION

SYKES, J.

The appellant, Joseph Staiger, was convicted of the murder of one A. P. Miller, in the circuit court of Forest county, and prosecutes this appeal. The material facts upon which the state relied for a conviction are in substance as follows About a month before the killing the appellant, Staiger, told his wife of certain derogatory remarks alleged to have been made to him by the deceased about one Mrs. Armbrecht. Mrs Staiger repeated these remarks to Mrs. Armbrecht; and Mrs. Armbrecht told her husband of them. On the day of the killing, to wit, May 27, 1914, Mr. Armbrecht, shortly after the noon hour, called at the home of the appellant and asked him whether or not it was true that Miller had made these remarks, and when. Appellant told him that it was true, and stated the time, place, and all the circumstances under which they were made. Armbrecht, from appellant's home, then telephoned Mr. Miller, asking that Miller meet him in his (Armbrecht's) office at once. Miller was a bookkeeper, and in the morning kept the books of Armbrecht, who was in the lumber business, and in the afternoon worked for a drug store there in the city of Hattiesburg. Armbrecht had two offices on the second floor of the Ross Building, one of which was occupied by the bookkeeper and stenographer, and the other was his private office. Appellant, Staiger, was in the insurance business, and had his offices on the third floor of the same building. In the course of the conversation between Staiger and Armbrecht at Staiger's house Armbrecht told Staiger that he intended to discharge Miller. Some days before the killing appellant's wife had gone to Kansas city; and on the day in question appellant was packing up preparatory to breaking up housekeeping, and intending to leave Hattiesburg that day to join his wife. The testimony of appellant, which is not contradicted, is that about a year previous to the difficulty he had purchased a pistol which he kept in his home; and on the day of the killing he put the pistol in his trousers pocket, intending to take it down to his office and give it to his stenographer to raffle off along with a shotgun which the stenographer intended to raffle; that this was done before his conversation with Mr. Armbrecht. Shortly after Armbrecht left he telephoned to Staiger, from his office, that Miller was there and denied making the statement, and he (Armbrecht) requested that Staiger come by his office that afternoon. To this Staiger replied that he would call at Armbrecht's office. Armbrecht testified that within a short time after this conversation Staiger came into his office that at this time Mr. Miller had left the private office of Armbrecht and was in the front office, occupied by the stenographer, and by Miller during the mornings; that as soon as Staiger came he (Armbrecht) called Miller back in the office; that Miller came back, shut the door, and stated he did not...