State v. Arnold

• Decision Date: 01 February 1963
• Docket Number: No. 291,291
• Citation: 129 S.E.2d 229,258 N.C. 563
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Jesse James ARNOLD and George Dixon.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 229

129 S.E.2d 229

258 N.C. 563

STATE of North Carolina v. Jesse James ARNOLD and George Dixon.

No. 291

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Feb. 1, 1963

J. Harvey Turner, Kinston, for defendant-appellant Jesse James Arnold.

Fred W. Harrison, Kinston, for defendant-appellant George Dixon.

T. W. Bruton, Atty. Gen., and Ralph Moody, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

PARKER, Justice.

The State's evidence shows: George T. McArthur, a man 68 years old, and his 62-year-old wife owned and operated a little store on Highway #11 about eight miles north of the city of Kinston. It is about 'a stone's throw' from the back door of the store to the house behind the store where they lived. About 'dusky dark' on Sunday, 10 September 1961, George T. McArthur went to the store from his home.

About 7:00 o'clock p. m. on this night Jesse James Arnold and a tall Negro entered the McArthur store. Arnold was carrying a shotgun. Both men had on boots and brown khaki pants, but were shirtless and without hats. Three shots were heard in the store. About 15 minutes later these two men came out of the store with some big object in their hands. They went across the highway into a field. A little later they came back across the road, and went towards a hog pen. John Rouse, who lives across the highway from the McArthur store, told them, 'You better look out for the hogs, those hogs might get you.' One of the men replied, 'How well I know, they are my daddy's hogs.' The hogs were owned by Glenn Arnold, father of the defendant Arnold.

A short time after this, Ruby McArthur, wife of George T. McArthur, went to the store, as he had not returned home. The lights of the store were on, and the front and back doors were open. When she went in the back door of the store, she saw her husband lying dead on the floor in a pool of blood. Blood was spattered everywhere, all over the walls and ceiling, the back screen door, the back of the meat case, the end of the show case, and all over the freezer. The cash register was gone. Two gun shells were lying between the counter and the front door. She telephoned the sheriff's office.

Shortly after midnight on this night, John D. Edwards, an agent for the State Bureau of Investigation, talked with Jesse James Arnold in the commissioners' room in the courthouse at Kinston. Edwards made Arnold no promises, and used no force or threats. Defendant Arnold told him in substance: About 5:00 o'clock p. m. on 10 September 1961 he and defendant George Dixon were at Johnny Edwards' place (not the agent John D. Edwards). They talked about various things. Dixon said, 'Where can we find some money?' He replied, 'he knew an old man that he had known all of his life, that had a lot of money, and that there was not but two of them there.' About 6:30 p. m. he and Dixon went to his home. There they discussed further the getting of money from George T. McArthur. He and Dixon put on boots and khaki pants, but no shirts. He got his pump gun, and gave a single barrel shotgun and two gun shells to Dixon. His wife 'tried to get him not to go do the robbing,' but he and Dixon left and went to the McArthur store. When they arrived, two or three young girls were in the store. They stood outside until the girls left. Then Dixon went to the back of the store, and entered it. He heard a gun fire in the store, and immediately went in the front door. Dixon and McArthur were tussling together, and McArthur was bloody. Dixon shot McArthur, and then hit him with the stock of the gun. McArthur fell, and Dixon shot him again on the floor. He went out of the store, and Dixon came out behind him with 'an adding machine' and a box. Later they beat the box open. They found no money in it. Then they threw the box and 'the adding machine' in a sand hole in front of Johnny Edwards' place. He and John Rouse had words about the hogs. This is similar to the testimony of John Rouse.

The S. B. I. agent Edwards saw defendant George Dixon about 3:00 o'clock a. m. on 11 September 1961 in the sheriff's office in Kinston. At that time Dixon was so much under the influence of intoxicants in the opinion of Edwards that he did not talk to him. About 7:00 o'clock p. m. on 11 September 1961 in the commissioners' room in the courthouse at Kinston he had a conversation with Dixon. He made him no promises. He told him who he was. Dixon told him in substance: During the afternoon of 10 September 1961 he and defendant Arnold were together at various places. About 5:00 o'clock p. m. they went to Arnold's home. There Arnold said, 'George, I know where there is some money at.' He said to Arnold, 'How are you going to get it?' Arnold replied, 'We'll wait until after it gets dark and go down to the store and get the old man out, and we will get the money.' He replied, 'Let's don't do that, Jesse.' Jesse replied, 'There ain't going to be nothing to it. I'm going to carry a gun.' They changed clothes, putting on boots, khaki pants, and taking off their shirts. Jesse took a shotgun off the rack, and gave him a single barrel, twelvegauge shotgun and two shells. Jesse's gun was an automatic. They loaded the guns, and went to the store. Two white girls were in the store with the old man. When the girls left, he went in the back door of the store. The old man was standing near the counter. He was holding the shotgun back of him. He thought the old man must have seen the gun, because he ran at him, shoved him back, swung at him with a knife, and knocked him up against the building. At that time defendant Arnold came in the front door, and shot the old man. The old man fell up against the wall by the back door. Then Jesse hit the old man with his gun, and he hit the old man. Jesse shot the old man again, and he fell down on the floor on his back. He didn't move or make any noise, and Jesse and he knew he was dead. Jesse searched the old man, and found no money. He searched him, and found three quarters. Jesse tried unsuccessfully to open the cash register. He took Jesse's gun, and Jesse took the cash register and the adding machine, and they left. Afterwards they broke open the cash register and the adding machine, found no money in either, and threw them in a sand hole.

In the opinion of John Boyd, an agent of the State Bureau of Investigation, assigned to the ballistics department, the gun shells found in the McArthur store were fired by the pump gun, which was the gun Arnold had.

The body of George T. McArthur had a jagged wound on the top of the skull, a gunshot wound through his left arm about the size of a silver dollar that penetrated his chest, and other wounds. In the opinion of Dr. C. E. Cling, who examined the dead body, George T. McArthur was killed by a shotgun blast at close range.

The record shows that Ruby McArthur identified during the trial the cash register, which she observed was missing when she entered the store. This cash register was marked as State Exhibit 1. The record shows that on the morning of 11 September 1961 Paul Horace Dawson went to a sand hole near Johnny Edwards' place and found in it the adding machine, identified as State Exhibit 1. It was in about a foot of water. He brought it back and turned it over to S. B. I. Agent Edwards. Why State Exhibit 1 was called a cash register by Mrs. McArthur, and why the same exhibit was called an adding machine by Paul Horace Dawson the record does not disclose.

The defendants offered no evidence.

Each defendant assigns as error the overruling of his motion for a continuance and to the denial by the court of his request for an order requiring a mental examination of him by a private practicing psychiatrist and psychologist. In denying this request the court said: 'The court now offers to counsel an opportunity to get any private psychiatrist they desire and have their clients examined, at any time during the progress of this trial.' These assignments of error are overruled.

On 16 September 1961 Albert W. Cowper, resident judge of the 8th judicial district, appointed J. Harvey Turner, a member of the Lenoir County bar, as counsel to represent defendant Jesse James Arnold in this case--Arnold being without means to employ counsel. Lenoir County is in the 8th judicial district. G.S. § 15-4.1. On the same date for the same reason Judge Cowper appointed Fred W. Harrison, a member of the Lenoir County bar, as counsel to represent defendant George Dixon in this case. The indictment here was found by the grand jury a true bill at the October 1961 Term of Lenoir County superior court.

On 22 October 1961 Judge Cowper, upon motion of J. Harvey Turner, attorney for defendant Jesse James Arnold, entered an order, pursuant to G.S. § 122-91, committing defendant Arnold to the State Hospital for mentally disordered persons at Goldsboro, North Carolina, for a period of 30 days for observation as to his mental condition. The order further provided that the superintendent of the hospital shall file on or before 1 December 1961 a full report of the examination made at the hospital in the office of the clerk of the superior court, and furnish a copy of it to the prosecuting officer for the State and a copy to J. Harvey Turner, counsel for defendant Arnold.

Upon motion of Fred W. Harrison, counsel for defendant George Dixon, Judge Cowper entered a similar order as to defendant George Dixon.

The reports made by the State Hospital for mentally disordered persons at Goldsboro as to the mental condition of the defendants are not in the record. The separate motions for a continuance and to require a mental examination by a private practicing psychiatrist and psychologist are substantially identical. The sole reason stated in each motion for a further mental examination is because the report from the State Hospital is dated 20 November 1961, and Judge Cowper's order provided that each defendant should be kept for observation for a period of 30 days. Defendants have not shown that they were prejudiced by the...