State v. Conner

• Decision Date: 05 April 1920
• Docket Number: 466.
• Citation: 103 S.E. 79,179 N.C. 752
• Parties: STATE v. CONNER ET AL.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

103 S.E. 79

179 N.C. 752

STATE v. CONNER ET AL.

No. 466.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

April 5, 1920

Appeal from Superior Court, Iredell County; Adams, Judge.

Ralph Conner and Sinclair Conner were convicted of murder in the first degree, and they appeal. No error.

The fact of conspiracy in a homicide case may be collected from collateral circumstances, and it is not necessary to prove any direct act, or even any meeting of the conspirators.

The prisoners were convicted of the murder in the first degree of Lloyd Cloaninger who at the time of the killing was deputy sheriff of Iredell. The deceased under a warrant from a justice of the peace was commanded to arrest Boizy Conner and one of the prisoners, Sinclair Conner, under a charge of assault with a deadly weapon upon one Farin. On Sunday August 3, 1919, a large crowd of negroes and some whites were attending a camp meeting at Morrow's Grove, a negro church. Among these were the prisoners, Ralph Conner and Sinclair Conner, and their brother Boizy Conner, the last two being defendants in said warrant, and all three it seems armed with pistols. The deceased officer accompanied by two other officers, Furr and Broom of Mooresville, went to the camp meeting ground about 3 p. m. to serve the warrant against Sinclair Conner and Boizy Conner. Before the actual attempt to serve the warrant both of them were informed that the officers were in search of Sinclair to arrest him, and both were armed with pistols. Sinclair, inquiring where the officer was, went toward Cloaninger and asked him, "What in the hell does all this mean?" The deceased Cloaninger, having the warrant in his hand, told Sinclair "You are under arrest; be quiet," to which Sinclair replied: "No God-damned man shall arrest me!" Then crouching behind a tall black negro, he drew his pistol and opened fire upon Cloaninger. Cloaninger returned the fire. The only wound that Cloaninger seems to have received at this time was a slight one in one of his arms, whereas Sinclair Conner was so badly wounded that after dodging behind an automobile he fell at the foot of a tree some distance off. Cloaninger and the two other officers followed him to the tree, where Cloaninger was trying to ascertain the extent of Sinclair's wounds and to get a car to take him to some physician for attention. While this was going on, Boizy Conner came up and attacked Cloaninger, but without a weapon. Cloaninger used a blackjack in defending himself from the attack of Boizy. Furr and Broom, the Mooresville officers, then seized Boizy, and while they were holding him Sinclair Conner, the other defendant, breaking through the crowd which was trying to restrain him, and declaring that he would kill the damned white man who had shot his brother, came up behind Cloaninger, and fired two shots into his body. One of these shots was not fatal; the other, that which passed through Cloaninger's bowels was the cause of his death. Testimony of H. C. Furr, of Dr. Henry Long, and Johnson Gabriel.

Miles Wilson testified:

"I was at the camp meeting on August 3; walked there between 12 and 1 o'clock. I saw Sinclair and Ralph Conner as I was going; they were on the road between church and the woods, about 100 yards from the church. There were four of them abreast together, Sinclair, Ralph, Boizy, and another fellow with uniform shirt and blue pants--I didn't know him. They were talking when they passed me, and went around right in front of me up to the church.

I was going up to the camp ground; they were going along in front of me, and I heard them say--Sinclair said, 'I don't intend to be arrested by any damned man, white or anybody.' Said, 'I have got as good a gun as any man ever shot.' And Ralph said, 'Yes; and I have got as good a gun as any man, and I will use it, if I have to.' "

John Wally testified:

"I was at George Mayhew's on August 3, and was at the camp ground that morning about 11 o'clock. I saw Sinclair Conner there, walking around through the crowd. There was a soft-drink stand there, and Sinclair came up and made a remark about the sheriff. Some other fellow walked up when he came--they were getting dopes, Sinclair among them. Ralph and Boizy came up and called to him, and he left."

And again:

"It was a few minutes after 4 o'clock when I saw Sinclair, Ralph, and Boizy at the softdrink stand. I went to Mr. Mayhew's and got dinner, and was at the dope stand at 4 o'clock. The dope stand was 300 or 400 yards from the camp ground. While I was standing there, Sinclair came up and asked something about the sheriff, and somebody said, 'There is the sheriff over there,' and he said: 'No; that is a boy; he can't arrest me. I am talking about the big sheriff.' And after he made this remark, Ralph and Boizy came up, called to him as they started off, going in the direction of the preaching stand. I heard them murmuring; I could not understand what they said as they went off, about 300 or 400 yards, and about 4 or 5 o'clock I heard the report of the pistol."

The state relies upon this evidence of Wally as particularly important under the question of conspiracy. It places the three brothers together after Sinclair had the deceased pointed out to him, and declared that he would not be arrested.

Dick Craven, after testifying in regard to the first gun firing between Sinclair and the deceased, proceeded:

"When they finished they backed so that I could sorter see Cloaninger, and the other fellow went back behind my machine, went down to some trees, and another negro on my other side attracted my attention. He said, 'That is my brother; they can't arrest him.' He was about 10 feet away [then he says he was 50 feet]. He was pressing on with the crowd with a pistol in his hand. Four or five old colored women were holding him; he was pressing on and telling them, 'Get back or I will shoot.' He advanced further on, and another colored man got between them, and he said, 'Get out of my way. This is my brother; they cannot arrest him.' He was using profane language. He said, 'God damn; get out of my way. That is my brother; nobody can take him.' He said, 'I have a 13 shooter, and will use it.' And everything that got in his way, he made them get out of his way--had the pistol in his hand. He was moving, advancing all the time, going down the way he saw Cloaninger--down there where this other fellow fell."

The evidence is that this other negro was the prisoner, Ralph Conner. There was a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree as to both prisoners, and the capital sentence was imposed by the judge, from which both appealed.

L. C. Caldwell, of Statesville, E. B. Jones, of Winston, and R. T. Weatherman, of Statesville, for appellants.

The Attorney General and Frank Nash, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

CLARK C.J.

The prisoners declined to introduce any testimony. There...