State v. Carr

• Decision Date: 10 October 1928
• Docket Number: 201.
• Parties: STATE v. CARR et al.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

144 S.E. 698

196 N.C. 129

STATE v. CARR et al.

No. 201.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

October 10, 1928

Appeal from Superior Court, Duplin County; Grady, Judge.

Nellie Carr and Robert Carr were convicted of manslaughter, and they appeal. Reversed as to Robert Carr, and new trial granted as to Nellie Carr.

Nellie Carr, Robert Carr, James Carr, Graham Carr, and Willie Carr were indicted for the murder of Will Carr, the husband of Nellie and the father of the other defendants on the night of October 8, 1927. At the close of the state's evidence James Carr was discharged and on the trial Nellie and Robert were convicted of manslaughter and the others were acquitted. From the judgment pronounced Nellie and Robert appealed upon error assigned.

Nothing appearing beyond speculation or conjecture to show defendant's connection with homicide, demurrer to evidence should have been sustained (C.S. § 4643).

Evidence that defendant killed her husband held sufficient to take case to jury.

George R. Ward, of Wallace, and Rivers D. Johnson, of Warsaw, for appellants.

Dennis G. Brummitt, Atty. Gen., and Frank Nash, Asst. Atty. Gen for the State.

ADAMS J.

The evidence tends to show the following circumstances: The deceased and his family lived on the second floor of a house used for packing tobacco. The room was about 24 steps long and had one door opening from a porch on the front, which was reached by a stairway. Near the middle of the room was a curtain intended as a partition, the space occupied by the deceased and his wife being on the north side and on the south the space occupied by the children. There was a window in the rear of the room. The bed on which Robert and his wife slept was between the door and the curtain. The other children were sleeping on the porch when their father came to his death. The bed occupied by the deceased was in the northeast corner of the room. His death occurred a little while before midnight.

Nellie Carr testified that she was 43 years of age, had been married 26 years, had lived peaceably with her husband; that he had recently begun to drink and to "take dope," and on the afternoon preceding his death had come home intoxicated. In reference to his death she said:

"On the same night and before he shot himself he was lying on the bed and I was sitting on the trunk. He raised up, and his pants were hanging on the wall of the house, and he took his pistol out of his pants pocket and turned to the wall and shoots that way five times. I was on the trunk and I said, 'Willie, what in the world do you mean shooting this time of night? The folks won't know what to think of you.' He never said a word to me. After awhile Graham came in. He had been to church, and he went to sleep out on the porch. Willie Henry, my boy, and Marie, my girl were sleeping on the porch that night because it was so hot. Robert and his wife came home on the truck, just before Will shot himself. After he shot in the wall, he laid back on the bed, and after awhile I heard the truck coming, and Will called to me to bring him some matches. He had cover (quilt) around him, and he said, 'Get me the matches,' and I handed him the matches, and he said, 'I don't want that,' and I said, 'The boys say they won't strike without the box.' He took the matches and said to me: 'I am going to burn up these things.' I said, 'Don't you know if you burn up these things, you will burn up yourself, and us and what is below you?' And I turned off, and the gun fired. The load hit him in the right temple, and I looked him over and commenced to holler, and Willie Henry and Robert ran to me, and I told them to go get Mr. Gaylor (who is the magistrate at Magnolia) and Mr. Potter (our neighbor) and somebody there. *** I didn't know where the gun was when I was talking with him, about burning the things up. He was sitting on the bed, towards the foot, on the edge of the bed, and he fell right back over. He was on the bed when I grabbed him. When the gun fired, I looked. The gun fell on the floor. I didn't look for any gun; didn't know he had one there. I was right at him, but didn't see the gun; he must have had it under the cover. I didn't see the gun. I knew he had the pistol in the bed. He was shooting with that before he killed himself. He was lying flat down when he was shooting with the pistol."

Dr. Quinn, a witness for the state, testified as follows:

"I examined the body of Will Carr and found him on the bed as has been described, lying crosswise with the right side of his head towards the front of the house on his back. I probed the wound, which was about two inches above his right eye, and the load went in downward. I found the wound in the head, one shot in the collar bone and round his neck and face. There were no powder stains that I could tell. I did not get any of the shot or discover any other wound on his body. From my examination the wound was made with a shotgun No. 6 shot.

Q. From the position the body was lying in, from your examination of it, have you an opinion as to whether that wound could have been made by a gun in the hands of this deceased or not? A. I don't think it is possible for the deceased to have fired the gun and made the wound that I saw."

The defendants excepted to the question and the answer. This evidence should have been excluded. The defense was suicide. The ultimate issue for the jury was whether in truth the deceased had fired the gun; but, notwithstanding positive evidence to the contrary, the witness was permitted to make an unqualified negative answer. As a rule the witness is required to state the facts he observed and relied on as the basis of his opinion so far as they permit of a detailed enumeration. Such a statement of the facts affords an opportunity of testing the...