State v. Benson
| Decision Date | 10 May 1922 |
| Docket Number | 469. |
| Parties | STATE v. BENSON. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Superior Court, Iredell County; McElroy, Judge.
Bob Benson was convicted of murder in the first degree, and he appeals. Affirmed.
Murder in the first degree is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice, premeditation, and deliberation.
Criminal prosecution, tried upon an indictment charging the defendant with murder.
There was evidence on behalf of the state tending to show that J Robert Dishman, accompanied by Van Benfield, was traveling in a Ford car along a public highway in Iredell county, when late in the afternoon of Sunday, September 18, 1921, he approached a horse and buggy standing near the edge of the road. The horse was tied to a post with the buggy angling across the road. At the approach of the automobile the horse suddenly jerked back, and that threw one of the buggy wheels out past the middle of the road. The car struck the buggy wheel, and broke it as it pushed the buggy out of the way. This seems to have been the only damage done, except the breaking of some pieces of the harness.
Van Benfield testified "I examined the buggy, looked over the wheel and saw it was broke, and I told Mr. Dishman I would crank the car. I started to crank the car to get back in the road to see how bad it was torn up. I started to crank the car and Bob Benson and Jule Cowan come out there. I started to give it a jerk, and Benson said to me: 'Don't you crank that car.' I started again, and he run right up over me, and said, 'Damn you, don't you crank that car.' Dishman said to me: 'Son, don't crank it.' And I never cranked it. Benson commenced cussing Dishman, told him, damn him, he had torn up his horse and buggy, and had him to pay. And he would repeat it several times, and Mr. Dishman said: Benson said: 'You have tore up my horse and buggy.' And Dishman said to Benson: 'Get Dr. Cruse, and, if the horse is hurt, I will pay for it.' Dishman told Jule Cowan to go in the house and get the lantern and see how bad it was hurt and how bad the horse was hurt, and Dishman said, if anything was hurt, he would pay for it. Cowan went to the house to get the lantern. Benson commenced pulling off his coat, a white palm beach coat. He throwed it down in the buggy, and he said: 'I will go get the officers; they will assess the damages.' Mr. Dishman said: 'Get the officers.' Said: 'I will pay whatever they assess it.' And he left to go to Mr. Privette's to phone for the officers.
Benson left. Jule Cowan came back out with the lantern. When Benson left, Dishman said: He sat on the fender of the machine, and when Jule come out with the light he told Jule to sit by him; Benson was gone. Benson was gone 30 minutes. When Benson came back Mr. Dishman was sitting on the fender of the machine, and he said to him 'Did you get the officers?' And his answer was 'Damn you; you tore up my horse and buggy, and you have got me to pay.' Mr. Dishman said to him: 'Did you get the officers?' And he said: 'Damn you; you tore up my horse and buggy, and you have got me to pay.' Mr. Dishman said to him: 'Did you get the officers?' And he said 'Damn you; you tore up my horse and buggy, and you have got me to pay.' Dishman asked him the third time if he got the officers, and he said: Dishman said to him: 'I could have paid you long ago, if you had told me how much it was.' Benson left the road, and went in Jule's house. Dishman stayed there at the side of the car. I told Mr. Dishman to 'get in the car, and let's go; there was no reasoning to it.' Mr. Dishman got in the car. I just started to crank the car, had given it a half jerk, and there were two shots fired out at Jule Cowan's house. I just raised up. Mr. Dishman said: 'Crank it, son; he is not going to shoot nobody'--and I just pulled the flood bar. The shots sounded like a .32 rifle, .32 pistol or .38; wasn't no shotgun; no .22 rifle. I pulled the flood bar, and started to crank the car by spinning it, turning it around and around. When the shots were fired, hadn't spun it none yet, but I went to spinning the car around and around, and spun it until it catched and started, and when the car started, I raised up, and Benson was a-pounding Dishman over the head, and as he was hitting him over the head he said: 'Damn you; I will kill you.' "
It appeared to the witness that the defendant was hitting Dishman with a gun. The defendant himself told the officer, Fred Claywell, soon after he had been arrested, that he struck deceased with a pine pole about 3 feet long. The following is the defendant's account of the killing as related to the officer:
"He said he left his horse and buggy standing beside the road at Jule Cowan's. Said that Mr. Dishman and Mr. Benfield came along, and they struck his buggy. Said that he went out, and he asked Mr. Dishman what made him run into his buggy, and Mr. Dishman said: 'I didn't see your buggy until I was right against it.' Said: 'I didn't have time to stop.' He said, Mr. Dishman said: 'Your buggy was in the edge of the road anyhow.' And Bob said he said to him: 'You have got me to pay, Mr. Dishman.' And he said he said: Says: 'I will pay you whatever the damages is.' And he told him, he said: 'You have got to pay me, and pay me right now.' He said he said: 'All right; I will pay you whatever the damage is, or you can go get a new wheel, and I will pay for it, just which ever you had rather.' And Bob said to him, said: 'Damn you; I will go get the officers.' And Mr. Dishman said: 'All right; go get the officers, and I will stay right here until they come, and I will pay the damages, whatever they say it is.' And he went to Mr. Privette's, and he could not get Statesville--the line was out of order--and he said that he went back and he said: 'I went back with the intention of knocking hell out of him or making him pay for my buggy.' And he said that when he got back to the car he told Mr. Dishman: 'Damn you; you are going to pay me, and pay me right now.' And he said: 'Did you get the officers?' And he said that Mr. Dishman said: 'Well, I will pay you whatever it is.' And he says: 'You are going to pay me, or I am going to knock hell out of you.' Said he walked down to the lower side of the house, and picked up a pine pole 3 or 3 1/2 feet long. He said he went back to the car and said: 'I just rapped him in the head.'...
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