State v. Chavis
| Decision Date | 14 December 1949 |
| Docket Number | No. 649.,649. |
| Citation | 231 N.C. 307,56 S.E.2d 678 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE. v. CHAVIS et al. |
Hector Chavis and Leander Jacobs were convicted in the Superior Court of Robeson County, J. J. Burney, J, of first degree murder, and they appealed.
The Supreme Court, Winborne, J, held that the evidence was sufficient to be submitted to jury on first degree murder charges, that admission of photographs properly restricted to purpose of illustrating testimony of witnesses was proper, and that testimony of witness as to cause of deceased's death was not prejudicial, and affirmed the judgments.
Criminal prosecution upon a bill of indictment containing two counts charging that on April 5, 1949, Hector Chavis and Leander Jacobs and another, one Worth Lee Chavis, (1) did commit the crime of burglary in the first degree in respect to the sleeping quarters of one Martin L. Blackwell in Robeson County, North Carolina, and (2) the crime of murder in the first degree of one Martin L. Blackwell.
The defendants, upon arraignment duly had, pleaded "Not guilty", and upon motion of counsel for Worth Lee Chavis the court allowed a severance, and proceeded with the trial only of the case against defendants Hector Chavis and Leander Jacobs.
Upon the trial in Superior Court the State offered evidence tending to show substantially this narrative of facts: On April 5, 1949, Martin L. Blackwell, 79 years of age, resided in a building located on Highway 74 and 301, about 500 yards west of the corporate limits of the town of Lumberton, in Robeson County, North Carolina. The building consisted of two rooms. In the front room he operated a store with two counters, one on each side, with space between. He slept in the rear room. There was a front door, and a door connecting the two rooms, and another on the rear.
On the early morning of April 6, 1949, the dead body of Martin L. Blackwell was found on the floor of the store in a pool of blood, near the front door and about equidistant from the counters, with head toward and about 4 feet from the front door, and the feet toward the rear. The head of the body was battered, bruised and cut, and the skull was dented, crushed and split in several places. And the body was clad only in "long-handle" underwear. The front door was locked. The back door was open, with the key in the lock on the inside, along with several other keys. The bed was disarranged. There was no blood in the bedroom, but leaving the sleeping quarters coming toward the front on the left, blood was spattered on the candy case, about four feet from the body, and where the body was lying blood was spattered on the left counter up to about three feet from the floor. About 18 inches beyond the head there was a hole, freshly made, in the floor. In this hole there was the wadding of a 12-gauge shotgun. There were El reso cigars on the floor behind the right counter as the store is entered from the front and some Peter Paul Mound's candy on this counter.
Two distinct sets of tracks led to the back fence--20 steps from the back door. There was an opening in the fence. Just beyond it there was a ditch about four feet wide, with about eight inches of water in it. In this water a pistol, a 38 Smith & Wesson short, and a bar of Peter Paul Mound candy were found. Just across the ditch there was a box of candy and an El reso cigar.
The tracks were followed by officers back toward Lumberton to a dance hall, 250 yards from the Blackwell store. Across the street in front of the dance hall there wasa little path leading through the woods. Along this path coins amounting to 85 cents were found, --a 25¢ coin at the end of it. There a double-barrel shotgun, minus the stock, a box of Mound candy, two $1.00 bills, a jar of white liquor, a half-pint empty bottle, three empty cigar boxes, two empty candy boxes and some eight or ten El reso cigars were found. On the breach part of the gun and around the safety and under the trigger guard there was blood and what looked like bits of flesh. The stock of the gun was found about 100 yards away.
The State further offered testimony of witnesses tending to show that the defendants were together in the afternoon and evening of April 5; that defendant Leander Jacobs wanted to buy an automobile that was offered to him for $25.00; that he was successful in obtaining the money; that thereafter the defendants made statements to Worth Lee Chavis that they knew where they could get some money; that while the were riding around in the automobile of Worth Lee Chavis they wanted to know if he would be with them; that he declined; that they had him let them out at a point about 100 yards from the Blackwell Store about a quarter to 9 o'clock; that about 10 o'clock that night the defendants appeared at a taxi stand in Lumberton and hired a taxi to take them to Pembroke, --paying therefor four $1.00 bills; that at that time defendant Leander Jacobs was wet practically all over; that on this trip defendant Hector Chavis was in a hurry to get to Pembroke; that at Pembroke and after 10 o'clock on same night defendants hired another taxi, paying therefor $3.00, to take them to Maxton; that then they both were observed to be wet from about waist on down; that arriving at Maxton they were seen to go straight to another taxi; that they hired another taxi, one paying $7.00 and the other $6.00, to take them;--Leander Jacobs to his sisters at Midway, about 8 miles from Maxton, and defendant Hector Chavis rode around with the taxi driver until near daybreak.
The State further offered testimony tending to show that defendant Hector Chavis said in the presence of Leander Jacobs that after they left Worth Lee Chavis they went to the back of Mr. Blackwell's store; that Hector knocked on the door and Black-well came to the door with his gun in his hand and let them in; that before he let them in, he, Hector, told Mr. Blackwell his name; that Mr. Blackwell met them with his gun; that Leander Jacobs took the gun away from him, and hit him over the head with it several times; that Mr. Black-well grabbed the sawed-off shotgun and that he, Hector Chavis, grabbed the shotgun away, and hit him several times with it; that they took the money to where the shotgun and half-gallon jar of whiskey were found and divided it; and that Mr. Blackwell was on the floor the last time they saw him.
And the State further offered evidence as to statements made by Leander Jacobs, in the presence of Hector Chavis, to the effect that Hector came out first; that where they went through the fence Hector fell over the scantling and into the ditch where the gun was found in the water; that Leander said to Hector that "We are both equally guilty, we both did the job together"; that they were talking on Fourth Street, and Hector said he knew where they could get some easy money, --at Mr. Blackwell's store, --they could go out and rob him; and that they got what money they could get around the store, --some in two or three different cigar boxes, and went on down where they left the gun and whiskey and candy and empty boxes, and divided the money.
The State offered other testimony which tended to corroborate and substantiate the statements of the defendants.
And from the testimony offered by the State there is evidence that on the night in question defendants were drinking.
At the close of the State's evidence, the court allowed defendants' motions for judgment as of nonsuit on the charge of burglary in the first degree. But the court overruled defendants' motions, aptly made, for judgment as of nonsuit as to the charge of murder in the first degree. Exceptions 14 and 15.
The defendants offered no evidence.
Verdict: As to defendant Hector Chavis -...
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State v. Small
...in concert with the actual perpetrators of the crimes charged. See State v. Kelly, 243 N.C. 177, 90 S.E.2d 241 (1955); State v. Chavis, 231 N.C. 307, 56 S.E.2d 678 (1949); State v. Bennett, 226 N.C. 82, 36 S.E.2d 708 (1946); State v. Green, 207 N.C. 369, 177 S.E. 120 (1934); State v. Stefan......
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State v. Rogers
...in the case, the photographs were rightly received in evidence for the limited purpose of explanation or illustration. State v. Chavis, 231 N.C. 307, 56 S.E.2d 678. The rules of law germane to the exceptions reserved by the prisoner to the admission of the confessions allegedly made by him ......
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...conduct after the killing. Such conduct included a statement that he had intended to kill Jeanie Brooks. See State v. Chavis, 231 N.C. 307, 311, 56 S.E.2d 678, 681 (1949). Defendant argues further that the trial court improperly instructed the jury on provocation. Defendant concedes that ve......
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