State v. Carpenter

• Decision Date: 31 May 1904
• Citation: 182 Mo. 53,81 S.W. 410
• Parties: STATE v. CARPENTER.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

81 S.W. 410

182 Mo. 53

STATE v. CARPENTER.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

May 31, 1904.

CRIMINAL LAW—NEW TRIAL—FAILURE TO INSTRUCT —NEWLY DISCOVERED EVIDENCE.

1. Failure to instruct as to credibility of witnesses or as to the law of self-defense is not ground for new trial; such an instruction not having been requested, and there having been no exception to failure of the court to instruct on all the law governing the case.

2. Newly discovered evidence which is merely cumulative is not ground for new trial.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Howell County; W. N. Evans, Judge.

George W. Carpenter was convicted of murder, and appeals. Affirmed.

J. L. Van Wormer and Green & Clark, for appellant. Edward C. Crow, Atty. Gen., and C. D. Corum, for the State.

BURGESS, J.

From a conviction of murder in the second degree, and the fixing of his punishment at 10 years' imprisonment in the penitentiary, under an information filed by the prosecuting attorney of Howell county with the clerk of the circuit court of said county, charging the defendant, George W. Carpenter, with murder in the first degree, in that he did at said county, on the 13th day of August, 1903, with malice and premeditation, with a dangerous and deadly weapon, to wit, a knife, did strike, stab, and kill one Orvil Owens, defendant appeals. Defendant is not represented in this court.

At the time of the homicide the defendant was engaged in the restaurant business in West Plains, Mo. During the evening of August 13, 1903, he fell in company with the deceased, Owens, and one John Goacher. They were somewhat under the influence of liquor, though not drunk. They went into the restaurant kept by defendant, and, while in there, some persons came in, and a dispute arose between them, the deceased, and Goacher. Goacher and one of the party who last came in, by the name of Duke, had a fight. "Because of this, the boys were ordered out of the house by the defendant, and as they were proceeding to obey that order the defendant threw a plate at them. After the boys had left the restaurant of the defendant, they engaged in throwing rocks at each other, some of which may have struck the building of the defendant. At any rate, the defendant left his building and went out upon the street. He passed near where the deceased and Goacher were, and the deceased called to him, and told him he wanted to speak to him. The defendant was then about fifteen feet from the deceased. He approached the deceased, and, without anything further being said or done, he struck Owens in the side with his knife, inflicting a mortal wound, from the effects of which he died in less than two hours. The evidence on behalf of the state tends to show that Owens had no weapon in his hand at the time he was stabbed by the defendant. The testimony further shows that Owens made no attempt to assault the defendant. Indeed, it shows that he did nothing except advise the defendant that he wished to speak to him. The evidence on behalf of the state further shows that the defendant stated as he left his restaurant that he intended to get a gun and kill somebody, and that after leaving the restaurant he assaulted a person by the name of Dewey, and that, after having stabbed Owens...