The
bill of indictment is as follows: "The Jurors, for the
State, upon their oath present, that Azor Brown, late of the
County of Catawba, on the 26th day of May, in the year of our
Lord one thousand nine hundred and forty, with force and
arms, at and in the County aforesaid, unlawfully, wilfully
and feloniously with premeditation and deliberation, and of
his malice aforethought, did kill and murder one Bertha
Brown, a human being, against the form of the Statute in such
case made and provided and against the peace and dignity of
the State. L. S. Spurling, Solicitor."
The
defendant plead "Not Guilty". The jury returned a
verdict of guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree
as charged in the bill of indictment. The court below
pronounced judgment, in part, as follows: "Shall cause
the body of the said Azor Brown to be placed in the gas
chamber in the said States Prison, and shall then and there
cause the said Azor Brown to inhale and consume a sufficient
quantity of lethal gas, or other gases provided for the
purpose of execution in the State Prison until he, the said
Azor Brown
shall be dead,--and to you, the said Azor
Brown, the Court prays that God may have mercy on your
soul."
Facts
Witnesses for the State: Dr. H. E. Barnes testified, in part
"I examined Bertha Brown, wife of the prisoner at the
bar, on the day it is alleged she was killed, on the 26th day
of May of this year. She was on the floor in the room of the
house where she is alleged to have been killed. She was lying
on the floor on her left side. The examination revealed that
she had a hole through the right thumb with powder burns
another one in the left cheek with powder burns, that went
backward and upward in the skull; and a third one on the
right of the neck just above the collar bone with powder
burns, and ranged downward and out just under the shoulder
blade. I found three different bullet wounds in the body. She
was dead when I got there. I do have an opinion satisfactory
to myself as to what caused her death, either one of the
bullets through her chest or her cheek could have caused the
death."
Beaulah
Brown: "I married Azor Brown's brother. *** He
(defendant) came in the back door. He said: 'Bertha I
want to speak to you about a minute.' *** Yes he left his
wife at my home when he went away that time, she did not go
with him. He said 'Bertha I want to speak to you a
minute, and they went in the same room they went in the first
time, and was laughing and talking and stayed in there a
while--about a half hour--I heard a gun shoot and I was in
the back room, and I ran in there and before I could get in
there he had done shot three times; he shot about three
times, he shot three times before I got in there and she
was--I heard one shot and then two more. Yes, he was in the
room where she was when I went in, he was standing there
rubbing her leg. I said 'What in the world have you done;
you killed Sis', and I backed out of the room and called
Mr. Lentz. Azor ain't opened his mouth yet, he did not
answer me, he went back out the back door. I can't say
whether he had anything in his hand or not, I didn't
look. It was getting along about ten or eleven o'clock
when he shot her. From the time he left my house when they
put the dog in the car until he came back was about something
like thirty minutes. * * (Cross-examination) The doctor came
to see about Bertha. I don't know whether Azor was drunk
or not, I wasn't close enough to him to tell. I don't
think Bertha was drunk, I don't know whether she was
drinking or not. I don't know what they done in that
bedroom, but whatever they done, it was done quietly, there
was no disturbance in that room."
Chief
R. W. Lentz testified, in part: "I looked in the room
where she was lying on the floor and saw that she was dead,
blood was over the floor and I went out looking for Azor. I
went out on the outside and I came back and as I came back he
stepped out of the other room and went to the front door and
Sheriff Barrs and Mr. Shuford met him there, and he had this
gun on him, buckled around him; it is a forty-five caliber,
and I opened it, it had three empty shells in the gun. When I
went up to Azor I said 'What in the world is wrong, was
this an accident or did you do it on purpose?' He said
'It wasn't no accident, I shot her myself.' He
was drinking--drinking pretty heavy and I put him in the car.
*** He told me later why he shot her. I talked to him after
he went to the jail. I could not get him up for several hours
to talk, and he said that she had been spending the nights
down there with Ernest Hewitt and that he was tired of it and
was fussing with him that morning about it, and he went up to
Mr. Cox's where he night-watched and got the gun and shot
her. He said he called the taxi at John Brown's and went
back up to Cox's, a little over two miles, and came back.
Said the pistol belonged to the Cox Manufacturing Company. He
said he went up there for the pistol and came back. The
pistol had just been fired and there were three empty shells
in the pistol. The woman was dead. (Cross-examination) I
found Azor soon after I arrived at the house, I had not been
there but three to five minutes before I found him. Yes, at
that time he was pretty drunk, pretty full. He was still
drunk that afternoon. Yes he said it was not an accident, he
said 'I shot her'."
T.
W. Shuford: "I met this boy Azor Brown coming through
the hall and he walked up to Sheriff Barrs and started out to
the car and I noticed this gun hanging on his side and I took
the gun off him and gave it to the Chief, and we took him and
put him in the car and Chief said 'Was this an
accident', and he said 'It was not no accident'
and Chief went back in the house and Officer Barrs and myself
sat
in the car and asked Azor 'How come you
to shoot that woman?' and he says 'She did not treat
me right, if I had it to do over I would do it again.'
(Cross-examination) He did not tell me how the shooting took
place other than what I have told. At the time I put Azor in
the car he was drunk, in fact he was very drunk."
Defendant
testified, in part: "I went up the hill and Sis was on
the front porch by herself looking out at the street, and I
called 'Sis, come here' and she came to me and I said
'Well, we got to walk home, I spent all my money riding
around in the taxi'. She laughed and said 'I got some
money', and I said 'How about another drink if you
got some money', and she said 'Oh'. She went out
the door and I went in the room and lay on the bed. She was
gone three or four minutes, and she came back with a half
pint of whiskey and we sat down and drunk the whiskey. I
don't know where it come from, and we drunk the whiskey
all but about that much (measured off about an inch of his
finger in the opinion of the reporter). She said 'I
can't drink no more' and I said 'I can't
either', and I said 'Let's go home before we fall
down'. The gun was in the holster, and I got the gun from
between the mattress and laid the gun on the bed while I
fastened the holster on me around my waist. I reached for the
gun and she said 'Let me carry the gun', and I said
'No, I ain't going to let you carry nothing.' She
said 'You don't carry nothing', and I said
'You ain't woman enough'. She grabbed hold of the
gun and I said 'Turn the gun aloose', and she said
'No, I am going to show you that I am woman enough to
take it.' It fired and fired again, and she snatched the
gun again, and she fell in my arms, and she held the gun, and
she went down on her knee, and I laid her down on my knee,
and I called her and I said 'Sis', and she said
'I am shot.' *** I put the gun in my pocket and went
out the back door and came around to the front door. *** They
put me in the car and carried me to jail, and as for Mr.
Lentz asking me about the shooting and me telling him I meant
to do it, I don't remember telling him that, but I am not
disputing his word. *** No, sir, I did not have any intention
of shooting my wife. I had not had any thought in my mind
that I would kill my wife that day. I am telling you the
truth. I carried that pistol on my rounds as night watchman
sometimes every hour. I would take a nap and when I would
wake up and make my rounds I carried the gun with me, carried
it in the holster when I was making my rounds. The gun
belongs to Mr. Cox. *** No, sir. I did not shoot her at all
and she did not shoot herself. We were scuffling over it. No,
sir, I didn't pull back three different times and fired.
We were scuffling, and my hand might have been on the
trigger, it would have to been, but I did not know it was on
the hammer each time before it fired." He denied what
the officers said he told them about the shooting. "No
sir, I did not go back to get the pistol. Yes I know Ernest.
We were good friends, we never had any trouble over my wife
and him. She told me it was his liquor. *** Yes sir, I tell
this jury that the pistol actually went off three different
times and accidentally shot her and all the shots hit her,
none struck me."
William
Cox, a witness for defendant, testified that defendant worked
for him about 12 to 15 years, that his reputation was good.
On cross-examination he said: "Yes, I permitted him to
carry a pistol there at night, he just had it there on the
job. I permitted him to keep this pistol there with the
understanding that he was never to take it off the place. ***
About eleven o'clock I went to the plant Sunday morning
and while I was in the plant I heard a car drive up, and I
looked out and saw a Yellow Taxi out there, and I did a
little something and went out to the front and started to go
home and Brown came out of the basement and got in the car.
*** I saw him...
