State v. Geddes

• Decision Date: 23 January 1899
• Citation: 22 Mont. 68
• Parties: STATE v. GEDDES.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

22 Mont. 68

STATE

v.GEDDES.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Jan. 23, 1899.

Appeal from district court, Custer county; C. H. Loud, Judge.

George S. Geddes was convicted of murder in the second degree, and appeals. Reversed.

O. F. Goddard, C. R. Middleton, and Wm. H. De Witt, for appellant.

C. B. Nolan, Atty. Gen., and T. J. Porter, for the State.

HUNT, J.

The defendant appeals from an order denying his motion for a new trial, and from a judgment of conviction of the crime of murder in the second degree. The defendant George S. Geddes and Thomas Welch and Richard Dixon were jointly informed against for the crime of murder. The information charged that on November 4, 1897, at Custer county, this defendant and the other persons above named shot and killed Clemence W. Brown, who is spoken of throughout the record, and whom we shall designate, as Winnie Brown. The information is in the usual form of a charge of murder in the first degree. Geddes, this defendant, was given a separate trial. It appeared that on the afternoon of November 4, 1897, Winnie Brown and a brother of his, named Clarence, were returning with a four-horse team to their home, at a ranch on Lay creek, some 50 miles from Miles City. On their way they passed the ranch of defendant, Geddes, on the Tongue River road, in Custer county, and went to the mouth of Lay creek, about 2 miles beyond Geddes' ranch. There the two brothers met a third brother, Hersey Brown, who was on horseback, and who joined Winnie and Clarence. All three brothers continued their journey homeward, and, when about a mile and a half from their ranch, Dixon, a co-defendant, rode up behind them with a gun in his hand, deliberately pointed the gun at Winnie, and shot him through the body. Winnie fell out of the wagon, and Dixon rode off towards the hills. The brothers of Winnie carried him to a washout, and thereafter took him to what is called “Jackson's House,” where he died the following morning as the result of his wounds. Dixon is a colored man, and confessedly the person who killed Winnie Brown. He was the principal witness for the state, and, so far as it is necessary to state his testimony upon the final issue involved in this trial, it was as follows:

“My name is Richard Dixon. Am 22 years old, and have lived in Custer county since 1884. About August 19th, I went to George Geddes' ranch, on Tongue river. Had worked for Geddes before. Mrs. Geddes wrote me a letter to come up. When I got to the ranch, I found George Geddes, Mrs. Geddes, and Phil White there. I was at Geddes' ranch about a week. I told Geddes I had to come to town to fetch a horse back. Stayed in town two days. When I got back to Geddes' ranch, I found Mr. Geddes, Mrs. Geddes, Tom Welch, and Phil white there. When I was in Miles City on that trip, I saw Winnie Brown. When I got back, Tom Welch asked me if I saw that Brown boy in town, and I told him I did. I had no talk with Geddes after I got back to the ranch. Three or four days after I got back, I went with a team and a light spring buggy to Rosebud. A conversation occurred then with Mr. Geddes. Mr. Geddes said: ‘It is a good thing my arm is hurt. I was just getting so that I could ride, or I would have killed him [Winnie Brown] long ago. I intended to kill him, and roll him up in a canvas, and throw him into a burning coal bank.’ This conversation occurred on the drive, before we reached Rosebud. Geddes went from Rosebud to Miles City. I next saw him at the ranch,-think about a week afterwards. I did not have any conversation with him relating to Winnie Brown when he came back to the ranch. Did at a later date at the ranch. Geddes said he saw the Brown boy in town, and he guessed he was sick; he saw the doctor write him out a prescription for medicine. I then asked Geddes how his [Geddes'] arm was getting along, and he told me that the doctors had been at work at it some. After he came back there to the ranch, I did not hear Geddes mention Winnie Brown's name at the ranch, nor until he went to Rosebud again. When he came up from town the first time, he came up on the Tongue River stage, and stayed about a week or ten days at the ranch, and then I took him to Rosebud again. He came down to see about his arm, and there he told me that, if Tom Welch would ever catch that boy out, he would kill him. He told me that when we were passing Goodwin's place. He said that, if Tom Welch would catch that boy out in the hills, he would kill him and make way with him, and they wouldn't find him. He did not make any further statement about the Brown boy at that time for a little while. When we got to Rosebud, Geddes slept in Beach's saloon. I saw Geddes about ten days after that in Miles City, in Smithy's saloon; I said, ‘I thought you had left for Chicago.’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘Haven't left.’ We drank together. He said, ‘I want to see you in the wine room in a minute,’ and we went back into the wine room, and he said, ‘That Brown boy is in town, and he has had three or four indictments served on me;’ and he wanted to know if I could get anybody I could trust; and I asked him what for; and he wanted to know if I could get anybody I could trust; and I asked him what for; and he said, so as they could get him out, so they could kill him; and I says, ‘I can't;’ and he says, ‘If you can't, I will myself,’ and I left him, and went down to the store and got my things. Geddes said this about ten or fifteen minutes before train time. He had his pass, and everything, to go East. He wanted to know if I could get anybody that I could trust, and if I could trust Fred Rogers; and I asked him what for, and he told me, and I told him. He said he wanted that Brown boy killed. That is what he said to me. I told him that I could not do it, and he says, ‘You get him out, and I'll do it.’ I saw Geddes at the train that evening. He was going to Rosebud to see his wife. Saw Geddes the next day. When I left for Rosebud, Geddes and his wife were in Miles City. Mrs. Geddes stayed in town that night and the next day. I went to the ranch. Left Rosebud on Friday. Remained at the ranch Saturday, and left the ranch again for Rosebud on Saturday morning. I think it was two days after I had the conversation with Geddes in Smithy's saloon. In September or October I heard a conversation in the front room of Geddes' house. Mr. Geddes says, ‘If I can get that Brown boy in the hills, I will put his foot in the stirrup, and let the horse drag him to death.’ He said that to Tom Welch and his wife. He said he would do it himself. After I got back from Miles City, when I took the horse down there, I had a conversation with Tom Welch. Welch told me that the horse he had he rode down there to rope that ___ on. He says, ‘I intended to get him to running, and rope him, and take my dallies, and turn the other way, and jerk him off his horse, and drag him to death; and he will never know what hurt him.’ This conversation occurred immediately after I got back from taking the horse back to Miles City, as testified to. Welch then asked me if I saw the Brown boy in town, and what he was doing. I told him he was breaking horses. He wanted to know when he was coming up the river, and I told him I didn't know; he told me he was afraid of Tom Welch and George Geddes, and he was not coming up. About that time Mrs. Geddes asked me if I thought he was coming up, so I told her I didn't know. So I stayed down at the ranch two days, and then she wanted me to come up and see if he had come up the river, on Lay creek; see if he was there at the ranch. Mrs. Geddes afterwards said that she did not want the Brown boy to get back to town again; she wanted to catch him before he got back; did not want him to get on the witness stand and swear against George Geddes, for the boy had sued him for $1,500; and Mrs. Geddes wanted him kept away, so he would not get the money, and keep him from going to town. Mrs. Geddes mentioned the subject again about two days afterwards. She says, ‘Dick, there is fifty dollars or more for you or anybody else that will get away with that Brown boy,’ and I told her I could not do it. I don't think Mrs. Geddes ever again mentioned the subject to me.

“Thursday, when I killed the boy, about two o'clock, Mrs. Geddes was ironing in the kitchen; and she went into the front room, and took the field glasses and looked out, and she says, ‘Dick, there comes the Brown boys;’ and she came back into the kitchen, and wanted to know if I was not going to do that for George Geddes, and I told her, ‘No;’ and she says, ‘Go on and kill him,’ so he would not go on the witness stand and swear against George Geddes; and I went and got the gun, and got on my horse, and went up the river, inside the fence and the irrigating ditch, and went to the mouth of Lay Creek, and stayed there, in a canon, and waited for the boys to come past. I shot, and ran around a big butte. When I got to the ranch, I says, ‘Mrs. Geddes, I done it;’ and she says, ‘I am not a damn bit sorry. He put us to a lot of trouble.’ I said, ‘I have done something I am sorry for, Mrs. Geddes;’ and she said, ‘I am not.’ Mrs. Geddes spoke to me about their coming along about half past eleven or twelve o'clock, when they went up the river. She asked me if I was not going to kill that Brown boy, for to keep him from swearing against Mr. Geddes; and I told her I wouldn't, and she wanted to know why, and I told her I could not kill him just for that. I got the gun, a Winchester. When I went to get it, Mrs. Geddes was right in the dining room, and watching me. I took six cartridges with me. They were right on the shelf above the gun. I went to the stable and got the horse. When I was getting the horse, Mrs. Geddes was at the kitchen, standing at the kitchen door. She could see me. I got on the horse, and crossed the river. When she spoke to me at the house, and took the glasses and looked at the Brown boys, they were right in front of the house, in the main wagon...