State v. Anderson

• Decision Date: 28 February 1885
• Citation: 92 N.C. 732
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE v. W. A. ANDERSON.

92 N.C. 732

STATE

v.W. A. ANDERSON.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

February Term, 1885.

This was an INDICTMENT for murder, heard before Avery, Judge, and a jury, at January Special Term, 1885, of CALDWELL Superior Court.

James Hoskins, a witness for the State, testified as follows: The homicide occurred on Sunday. On that Sunday I rode with prisoner and Ed. Ray a part of the way from Bakersville in the direction of the mica mines. They were on horseback. This was before the homicide occurred. Before I left the prisoner that day, he told me that if he should stay out at the mine that week, he wanted me to come out to see him, and take a deer-hunt, and he wished me to tell Mr. Abernathy (a merchant in Bakersville), to send him (prisoner) some No. 22 cartridges to fit his gun. The prisoner did not have a gun at the time.

John Buchanan was introduced for the State, and testified as follows: In the afternoon of the Sunday in which the deceased was killed, I saw the prisoner and Ed. Ray about three miles from the mine where the homicide occurred, riding on horseback in the direction of the mine. They rode up to Polly Sparks' house together, from the direction of Bakersville, about 4 o'clock. They stopped together and rode off together.

Isaac Stewart was examined for the State, and testified as follows: I was at the mica mine near Flat Rock where the homicide occurred, on Sunday evening. While I was there, the prisoner and Ed. Ray rode up and got off their horses. I left in five or ten minutes after they arrived and went to my house, which was between a quarter and a-half mile from the mine. I rode there and put my horse in the stable, and had just gotten into the house, and was pulling off my spur, when I heard a shot. I started out immediately, and as I got into the yard I heard two more shots. I ran to the stable, caught a horse and rode over to the mine. I met the prisoner and Ed. Ray about two hundred yards from the mine, walking in the direction of Bakersville. They had sent their horses off on their arrival, before I left the mine for my house. The deceased, Ed. Horton, was alive and well when I left the mine to go home. I found him on my return, lying dead in a path about the edge of one of the dumps thrown out of the mine, with his head down the hill. His right leg was doubled under him. His left hand was under his head, and he was shot through his right hand. I did not examine his body at that time, but saw that he was shot in the head, in the edge of his forehead. I felt his clothes and satisfied myself that there was no weapon on or about his person. It had rained the night before, and that evening it was drizzling. I did not examine the ground carefully that night, but I saw no sign of a scuffle. I did examine the ground the next day, and saw no signs of a conflict, but people had meantime been walking about there a good deal. There was two shafts sunk at the mine. The two shafts were about fifty-five feet apart; but the dumps had been formed by the earth thrown out of each shaft, and the edges of the dumps were near together, about 20 or 25 feet apart. I left the deceased, Ed. Horton, Cebe Miller, Stephen Burlison, Bob Penland and Mitt Buchanan at the mine, when I went home on the arrival of the prisoner and Ray. Deceased and Miller were then on the outside of the mine. I think that the other two named were then inside of the lower shaft. The prisoner and Ray were at the upper shaft outside.

The solicitor proposed to show by the witness that he found the body of the deceased near the mouth of the lower shaft, and that he went down into the mine at the lower shaft, and what he found to be the condition of the other persons he had left at the mine, inside and outside of the shaft. The solicitor proposed to show that he found two of them dead or dying and a third wounded, as tending to show the nature and cause of the difficulty, and, in connection with other testimony, to explain the motive of the prisoner, and to show a conspiracy between the prisoner and Ray to take possession of the mine by force. Objection by the prisoner overruled and prisoner excepted.

The witness testified further, as follows, viz.: I went to the mouth of the lower shaft. I heard groaning and sent for a rope and a light. I then went into the lower shaft. I found Cebe Miller lying on his back, not able to speak. Stephen Burlison was also lying down in the shaft and had been wounded, apparently by a shot. I saw Bill Burlison also. He appeared to have been shot. Bob Penland was also in the shaft, but was not hurt. I saw Reuben Sparks standing at the upper shaft when I first went to the mine on Sunday afternoon. When the prisoner and Ed Ray dismounted, Reuben Sparks took their horses off.

The Solicitor then proposed to ask witness who was in the actual possession of the mine and working it immediately before the killing. The Solicitor proposed to prove by the witness that Cebe Miller, Mitt Buchanan, deceased, and others were in actual possession of the lower shaft from the time they began to open it about two months before, continuously up to the time of the homicide, and that they opened the upper shaft also, some time before, and had remained in possession of it until Saturday night immediately preceding the homicide, when Ed Ray claimed to have taken possession of it, and had left Reuben Sparks at the mouth of it and had gone off.

This testimony was offered to be taken in connection with testimony of Hoskins, that Anderson had spoken to him of remaining at the mica mine, and other testimony, thereafter to be offered, that prisoner and Ray both came armed, and had difficulties in and near the lower shaft, as tending to show an unlawful purpose on the part of the prisoner to commit a trespass, and that he did commit a trespass.

Objection for the prisoner overruled, and prisoner excepted.

The witness then testified that Cebe Miller and Mitt Buchanan were in possession just before and at the time of the homicide.

Mitt Buchanan was introduced for the State, and testified as follows, viz.: Cebe Miller and I were in possession of the mine, both the upper and lower shafts, on Saturday, the day before Horton was killed. I left the mine about 10 o'clock, Saturday morning, but left the hands working, and up to that hour had never seen prisoner or Ed Ray at the mine. I had never seen either of them there till the Sunday that the homicide occurred. I had been working at the mine for six or seven weeks, continuously, before the difficulty. I returned between 2 and 3 o'clock on Sunday evening, and found Reuben Sparks and Hardy Sparks at the upper shaft, and Cebe Miller and Palmer Ellis in the lower shaft. I went down into the lower shaft, and was there when Miller and Burlison were killed. The Solicitor proposed to show, at this point, by the witness, what occurred inside of the lower shaft, about the time he heard firing on the outside, but the Court, on objection, refused to allow the witness to state then what was done in the shaft.

Witness testified further, as follows:

While Ray was in the lower pit, I heard a pistol fire outside. I soon heard a second shot outside, and very quick I heard a third shot. I went out of the mine in about three or four minutes after I heard these shots. As I went out I saw a man walking off of the dump. I went home then without seeing Horton.

Arthur Buchanan was next introduced as a witness for the State, and testified as follows: I went to the mine about one or two o'clock Sunday afternoon. Hardy Sparks and Reuben Sparks were there, at the upper shaft. They were right close to the mouth of the upper shaft. I went down to the lower shaft.

The prisoner's counsel had asked the witness Stewart, if Reuben Sparks and Hardy Sparks had not been in possession of the upper shaft before Ray and Anderson came, and if Ray, prisoner, and Reuben Sparks were not in possession of the upper shaft when he, Stewart, left to go home, just before the homicide. This was asked with the view, as expressed at the time, of showing that Reuben Sparks, Ray and prisoner jointly held possession of the upper shaft, and the witness Stewart had testified on cross-examination, that Reuben Sparks was at the mouth of the upper shaft when Ray and Anderson came up; that they dismounted and gave their horses to Reuben Sparks, who took them away, while Ray and Anderson remained, and he left them standing near the mouth of the upper shaft.

The Solicitor proposed to show by the witness, what Reuben Sparks said, if anything, about his possession, when he left Reuben and Hardy Sparks at the fire at the upper shaft and started down to the lower shaft, after he came on Sunday.

The Court held that after the prisoner had brought out the fact that Reuben and Hardy Sparks were at the upper shaft, to show possession in the prisoner and Ray, it was competent to prove the declaration of Sparks in reference to to the possession.

The prisoner excepted. The Court overruled the exception, and the witness then testified as follows: Either Reuben Sparks or Hardy said to me that they had possession, and were going to hold it.

William Burlison was next introduced for the State, and testified as follows: I went to the mine about 2 or 3 o'clock on Sunday evening. I found the two Sparks boys, Reuben and Hardy, sitting on the upper dump. I stood there and talked to them for some time. I went down then to the lower shaft, and went down into the mine. I came out and went to my father's house to get some tools. I met Ed. Ray and the prisoner three-quarters of a mile from the mine, coming from the direction of Bakersville. On my return I saw the prisoner standing on the upper dump. I went on down to the lower shaft, and threw my tools into the pit or shaft. Ed Ray and Cebe Miller were then talking on the edge of the lower pit. Ed tried to catch the tools and missed them. He then drew back a gun that he had across his lap to strike me. Cebe Miller said,...