State v. Burns
| Decision Date | 03 June 1919 |
| Docket Number | No. 21339.,21339. |
| Citation | 213 S.W. 114,278 Mo. 441 |
| Parties | STATE v. BURNS. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Pemiscot County; Sterling H. McCarty, Judge.
Ernest Burns was convicted of murder in the second degree, and appeals. Reversed and remanded.
B. A. McKay, of Caruthersville, for appellant.
Frank W. McAllister, Atty. Gen., and Henry B. Hunt, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
The appellant on a trial in the circuit court of Pemiscot county was convicted of murder in the second degree, and appealed. One A. P. Bumpas was the victim of the homicide. The trouble between the two men arose out of the defendant's alleged attentions to the wife of Bumpas.
Mrs. Bumpas had charge of the post office at the town of Cooter in Pemiscot county. The defendant, Burns, was a mall carrier, and his route lay through Cooter, where the homicide occurred September 27, 1917. He carried the mail in his automobile. The two families of Bumpas and Burns were on friendly terms, and both men and their wives and children were at times taken for rides in Burns' car. Previous to the time of the homicide, the deceased had complained about Burns' attentions to his wife, although he always said that nothing improper had occurred between them.
Burns was scheduled to leave Cooter at 3:10 each afternoon, and he usually arrived at that post office about 2 p. m. During the hour or more while he remained there, he was in the post office, usually alone with Mrs. Bumpas; the children being away at school. Nothing unusual was ever noticed in his conduct at such times. In April, prior to the homicide, he took Mrs. Bumpas to Caruthersville in his car, where she went to see a dentist, starting early in the morning and returning about 1:30. A conversation occurred between Bumpas and the defendant in relation to that trip, in which, as defendant's testimony tends to show, the deceased apologized for becoming excited about it. The deceased made various threats against the life of Burns, some of which were repeated to him a short time before the killing occurred. Bumpas was unsettled in his mind regarding the affair and was torn between jealousy and regret for what he sometimes confessed to be unjust suspicion. This appeared in his talk with other persons.
On September 27th, Burns arrived as usual with the mail. Bumpas was in the back yard working on some kind of a building at the time. Mrs. Bumpas was in the post office preparing the mail bags for delivery to Burns. Two small daughters of Bumpas, Mary Lou, ten years of age, and Helen, seven years of age, were in the house, in the rooms in the rear of the post office at the time. No other persons were in or immediately near the post office. Several other witnesses testified to seeing some of the incidents of the tragedy from other points of view up and down the street in front. The two little girls testified for the defendant that their father came in from the back yard, went to his trunk in his bedroom and took a pistol from, it, and walked with it into the post office where Mrs. Bumpas and Burns were. Bumpas then ordered Burns to get out and thereafter to put the mail on the porch and not come into the office. Mrs. Bumpas did not testify, and nothing further is shown of what occurred in the post office. The next that appears in the testimony was when Burns came out of the post office to where his car stood about eight feet from the post office door, carrying the mail bags. Some witnesses stated that he had an automatic pistol in his hand; others stated that he had nothing in his hand except the mail bags. He went around his car to the opposite side for the purpose of depositing the mail bags in it. There was some evidence to show that at that time Bumpas was heard to order him hereafter to throw the mail bags on the porch and stay out of the post office. Burns said he answered that he was under bond to deliver the mail in the post office and was going to do it. Bumpas then was heard to say, "You will play hell, too," and turned and went back into the post office. Some of the witnesses heard the remarks of Bumpas, but did not hear what Burns said.
Next Burns was seen dodging around his car with his revolver in his hand. He stated that he got it out of the car after he went out. Immediately a shot was fired from a weapon of small caliber. Burns' revolver was a 32 automatic. At that time Bumpas was not in sight of the witnesses in front of the post office, and Burns swore that the first shot was accidental; that he picked up his automatic with his left hand; and that it was discharged by accident. Almost immediately a shot from a weapon of larger caliber was heard. It was afterwards shown that Bumpas had a revolver of larger size in his hands, and an empty cartridge was found in one of its chambers. Immediately in rapid succession Burns fired twice, and one of the shots struck Bumpas in the side above the hip, and he sank to the floor. According to some of the testimony, he was still trying to get a shot at Burns when witnesses appeared on the scene to pick him up. These witnesses asked the defendant not to leave right away, and he told them to take the gun away from Bumpas and he would not leave. Burns cranked his car immediately and went away. When the witnesses arrived, they found Bumpas on the floor. Mrs. Bumpas refused to allow him to be put on the bed. It was shown, over the objection and exception of the defendant, that she said he should not be put on her bed; a man that would act like he had. If he would explain to the crowd why he had done that, and he was justified, she would let him be put on the bed; but she would not if he did not.
Bumpas was taken to Memphis, where he was operated on and died in a day or two.
I. Error is assigned to the admission by the court of the statement of Mrs. Bumpas explaining why she refused to let her wounded husband be put on her bed. This statement was clearly hearsay. While the matter of the statement tended to exculpate the defendant and put the blame of the encounter upon her husband, it further tended to show her partiality for the defendant, and would undoubtedly have a tendency to prejudice the jury against him. Mrs. Bumpas was not a witness, and it was not admissible for the purpose of showing her bias in the case. It was not res gestæ, and incompetent on any theory. In order that a statement or an act may be admissible as res gesæ, it must be undesigned, instinctive, spontaneous, and arise out of the incident which it seeks to describe. State v. Reeves, 195 S. W. 1030, and cases cited. The statement of Mrs. Bumpas occurred several minutes after her husband was shot and after the neighbors had come in. It was her deliberate explanation of her attitude in the matter. It was, in fact, an argument showing why she did not want her wounded husband placed on her bed.
II. The court in the instruction upon murder in the second degree...
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