State v. Billings
| Decision Date | 14 October 1890 |
| Citation | 46 N.W. 862,81 Iowa 99 |
| Parties | THE STATE OF IOWA, Appellee, v. MYRON E. BILLINGS, Appellant |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Black Hawk District Court.--HON. JOHN J. NEY, Judge.
THE defendant was indicted for the murder of Willis S. Kingsley on the twenty-first day of December, 1887, in Bremer county. The indictment was tried in Bremer county in 1888, and a verdict was returned of murder of the second degree, and from the judgment thereon, of life imprisonment, the defendant appealed, and the judgment was reversed, and a new trial ordered. The venue of the case was changed to Black Hawk county, where the case was again tried, with a like verdict and judgment, and the defendant again appeals.
REVERSED.
W. L Eaton and C. Wellington, with M. E. Billings, pro se, for appellant.
John Y Stone, Attorney General, C. W. Mullan, County Attorney, and E. A. Dawson, for the State.
I.
Willis S. Kingsley was, on the twenty-first of December, 1887, an attorney at law, and county attorney for Bremer county. His office was in the city of Waverly, on the north side of Bremer avenue. It consisted of two rooms, being a front and rear room, connected by folding doors. These rooms were on a second floor, with a door leading from each to a hall and stairway. On the same floor, in the rear of the office, were two rooms occupied by Dr. C. P. Byers. About six o'clock on the evening of December 21, 1887, Kingsley was found in a dying condition on the floor of his office, lying just inside the rear room, with his head against one of the folding doors, partly opened, and in such manner that his head was pressed forward till his chin was rested on his breast. When found he was alive, but unconscious, and died in a few moments, and without regaining consciousness. Soon after being discovered, the body was so moved lengthwise as to avoid the cramped position, and allow the head to rest on a cushion on the floor. The right arm lay along the right side on the floor, somewhat bent, so that the hand was near the hip, the fingers being also slightly bent. Between the hand and the hip, with the barrel somewhat under the hip or thigh, lay a revolver, from which two shots had been fired one of which caused the death of Kingsley. The ball had entered the head of Kingsley near the junction of the right nasal and frontal bones, at a point spoken of as the "inner angle of the right eye." On a chair in the front room of the office lay the overcoat of the defendant, in one pocket of which was an unloaded revolver, which had not been discharged on that occasion. But two shots had been fired, and both from the revolver lying by the side of Kingsley, and there were about four and one-half seconds of time between the two shots. Immediately after the shots were fired, the defendant came from the stairway leading to Kingsley's office, with the remark: An examination disclosed a hole through the back of the coat, vest, shirt and undershirt of the defendant, and that the ring connecting the lower and upper parts of the suspenders was broken, the suspenders separated, and a revolver ball, somewhat flattened, was impressed upon and adhered to the suspender ring. Directly over the spinous process, and about on a line with the lower ends of the shoulder blades, was a slight wound about the "size of a three-cent piece," and slightly swollen.
It may here be stated that the testimony as to the killing is entirely circumstantial. No living person, barring the defendant, has positive knowledge of the facts. For some time just prior to the killing the defendant was in the office of Kingsley, and Dr. C. P. Byers, who was in the adjoining office, heard loud words, and, stepping to his door, overheard some parts of an altercation, and his is the only testimony of a third person of what occurred at that time between defendant and Kingsley. The following is a part of his testimony: The witness now here claps his hands together four times. The reporter times witness while he claps his hands four times. By the reporter: "I got it four and one-half seconds." It is stipulated by the attorneys for the defendant, and also for the state, that the reporter found the time to be four and a half seconds. Witness:
The defendant had contemplated, or at least prepared, some papers, looking to a criminal prosecution of Kingsley for the seduction of one Emily Shane, and he either believed, or professed to believe, that there had been criminal intimacy between his wife and Kingsley; and defendant's mission to the office of Kingsley on the night in question was with reference to one or both of these matters.
On the person of defendant, when he came from the office of Kingsley, was an envelope containing papers, which we need only briefly describe. Exhibit 13 is in the handwriting of the defendant, and is as follows:
This paper was without signature, and there were also notes, a real-estate and a chattel mortgage, unsigned, with dates for payments, and amounts to correspond with the assignment (Exhibit 13); also an information charging Kingsley with the crime of adultery with defendant's wife, with the name of Delia E. Billings as informant, and sworn to before M. E Billings as notary public. This was in the handwriting of defendant, and the name of his wife affixed thereto without authority; also an information charging Kingsley with the crime of seduction, with Emily Shane as informant, and sworn to before M. E. Billings; the information, except signature, being in his handwriting. On the back thereof was the...
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