State v. Hall

• Decision Date: 04 August 1932
• Docket Number: 2966.
• Parties: STATE v. HALL. [*]
• Court: Nevada Supreme Court

13 P.2d 624

54 Nev. 213

STATE v. HALL. ^[*]

No. 2966.

Supreme Court of Nevada

August 4, 1932

Appeal from District Court, Clark County; Wm. E. Orr, Judge.

John Hall was convicted of murder in the first degree, and he appeals.

Affirmed with directions.

Louis Cohen, of Las Vegas, and Frame & Raffetto, of Reno, for appellant.

Harley A. Harmon, Dist. Atty., and Roger Foley, Deputy Dist. Atty both of Las Vegas, Gray Mashburn, Atty. Gen., and W. T Mathews, Deputy Atty. Gen., for the State.

DUCKER J.

The appellant, John Hall, was convicted in the district court of Clark county of the crime of murder of the first degree. The jury exercised their discretion and fixed the punishment at death. The appeal is taken from the judgment and order denying appellant's motion for a new trial.

The conviction of appellant resulted from his killing one John C. O'Brien by shooting him with a pistol on the night of June 15, 1931, near what was known as the Fox ranch situated about six miles south of the city of Las Vegas, Nev. O'Brien, Hall, their wives, and the former's stepdaughter, Lillian, had been living together at the Fox ranch in a two-room house for a few days prior to the time of the homicide.

The shooting occurred about 10:30 at night, when they were going to their home from Las Vegas in an automobile. Mrs. O'Brien, as a witness for the state, gave substantially the following version of the affair: "Mr. O'Brien was sitting at the wheel, I was sitting in the middle and my daughter on the side. Mr. and Mrs. Hall were sitting in the back seat. When we got near our home where we generally stopped the car Mr. Hall hollered, 'Drive on and don't stop.' Mr. O'Brien drove a short distance, stopped the car, looked back and hollered, 'What's the idea?' Then Mr. Hall commenced shooting. My daughter and I got out of the right side of the car and Mr. O'Brien followed us the same way. Mr. Hall shot twice while in the car and then got out the left side of the car and shot four times more. I ran around to stop Mr. Hall from hurting my husband further and Mr. Hall hit me. He hit me on the top of the head. He just kept on hitting me then on the head. I kept falling down and getting up. He was cursing all the time. These words I can remember, 'G____ D____ you, I'll get you too.' I ran around the car and asked Mrs. Hall if she would help me. She started beating me up. At the time Mrs. Hall hit me, Mr. Hall was after Lillian. He hit me with a gun. He hit me a good many times and knocked me down. I asked Lillian to run for help. He said there is no need of going for help. He was right behind us. We ran down through the bushes."

Lillian, Mrs. O'Brien's daughter, was also a witness for the state. She testified that she was 15 years of age. She gave the following account of the affair: "On the evening of June 15, 1931 about 10:30 in the evening, my Daddie, mother, myself and Mr. and Mrs. Hall were on our way home in a Studebaker car. Mr. O' Brien was driving, my mother was in the middle of the front seat and I was sitting on the outside of the front seat. Mr. Hall told my father not to stop the car. He started to stop and Mr. Hall took out the gun and started to shoot. After the shooting he beat my mother. I started after my mother, and she said to go after father. I started to go down the road after him and he said he was all right. I then went after mother. Mr. Hall was beating her. I heard six shots, two in the car and four outside. I saw no gun or anything else in the hands of Mr. O'Brien."

N. R. Burkhart was driving his car on the highway past the Fox ranch between 10:30 and 11:00 on the night of the shooting. He saw O'Brien in the road in front of him with both hands up. His shirt was bloody, and he was staggering. Burkhart took O'Brien to the Las Vegas Hospital, where he died shortly afterwards on that night. An examination of the body by a physician and surgeon revealed bullet wounds, one of which, a wound through the chest, was the cause of death. The bullet causing the latter wound entered the back about two inches from the spine and emerged in front near the nipple.

Hall and his wife were taken into custody at Yermo, Cal., on the morning of June 16, 1931, by Lester Sample, an inspector with the highway border patrol. Hall was asked by Sample why he killed those folks at Las Vegas, and replied: "I didn't kill anybody." Sample told him that he did, and Hall said: "Why, there was a little shooting went on out there, some shooting. I didn't know I hit any of them." Sample asked him where his guns were, and Hall said he had no guns. Sample found two guns in Hall's suitcase. They were pistols.

A short time afterwards Hall told Sample that O'Brien stole six or seven hundred dollars of his money. He said: "I knew that he got this money and I rented this ranch to watch him and if I caught him spending any of this money I was going to kill him. If he is dead I sure am glad of it. I was going to shoot him before at their home but my wife interfered and wouldn't let me. If I die in the electric chair he won't be able to spend any of my money."

When Hall and his wife were taken into custody by Sample, they had come into Yermo on a motor express truck. The driver of the truck, T. V. Shafer, testified that they were walking along the road about 1:30 a. m. June 16, 1931, when he took them into the truck. He corroborated Sample in the main as to the statements made by Hall, and in addition testified that Hall said: "He would hate for his friends back in South Carolina to know that he had fired six shots at a man and only hit him three times." He also testified that Hall said that he was glad he did it because O'Brien deserved everything he got. Hall and his wife were detained at Yermo until the arrival of Joe Keate, sheriff of Clark county, on the same day. Hall waived extradition, and he and his wife returned to Las Vegas in the car with the sheriff and his deputy, Mr. Bodell.

The deputy drove the car. Mrs. Hall sat in the front seat with him, while Hall sat in the back seat with the sheriff. Hall was not handcuffed. The sheriff testified that during the ride Hall said: "The son of a gun stole my money. I killed him and I'm glad of it. I never was happy until I knew he was dead." The witness testified further as to Hall's statements: "He said at one time there about two weeks prior to that time he would have killed him if his wife hadn't stopped him. He said that another time, that what he wanted, or as soon as he found out they had been spending this money that he had lost, he had decided he needed killing and he was going to kill him, and various things of that kind, but it all pertained to that one thing." The witness also testified that Hall said that at the time he shot him, O'Brien was reaching back to strike him; that Hall said, "'I don't know what he had in his hand, but he had what I thought might be a black-jack in his hand;' that he said he ran out of shells for the big gun and wanted to use the little gun to shoot the others with, especially Mrs. O' Brien; that she had as much to do with the stealing of that money as did O'Brien, and also he figured the little girl would be along with them; that if the little gun had worked he would have killed the others."

Bodell also testified as to Hall's statements on the return to Las Vegas. His version of these statements is substantially as follows: "Hall said, 'Well, I guess you boys thought I was trying to get away from you, but I wouldn't; I was just full of booze, out of my head and just wanted to go somewhere--anywhere.' Later on he said: 'You know that son of a gun stole $700 from me. I told him, I warned him before that that if I ever caught he or any of his family spending any of my money, that I was going to kill him."'

He told the sheriff that he (Hall), was a good shot; that he would not want any of the boys back in Carolina to know he emptied a gun at a man at that range and only hit him a couple of times; that when he was in the Philippines he used to ride horseback around a center pole with a ball on the post and shoot the ball off with a six-shooter at full speed ahead. He continued and said his only regret was that he did not fix all three of them up, and that, had the small gun worked, he would have done so, but that the "dog-gone thing wouldn't work"; that he could not pull the hammer back, so he went back to the house to get more shells for the big gun to finish them up, but that he could not find the shells in the house. He said: "If I got to hang, sheriff, I have only one favor to ask of you, that is, that I can throw the dog-gone little gun as hard and as far as I can throw it." The witness gave the following testimony concerning Hall's statements as to the shooting: "O'Brien and his wife were in the front seat of the car. Hall and his wife and Lillian were in the rear seat. They were driving down the road and Hall said to O'Brien, 'don't you stop.' O'Brien was slowing the car down and 'knowing that he stole my money, I knew he had stolen it, and I told him that when I caught him or any of his family spending my money I was going to kill him, and I was so mad and knew at the time they were spending my money, so I pulled a gun and said, "Jack, I told you if I caught you spending my money I would kill you,"' and started shooting."

Hall claimed that the shooting was done in self-defense. He was a witness in his own behalf, and testified at length as to the shooting and his relations with O'Brien shortly prior thereto. Much of Hall's narrative as to his dealings with O'Brien, and conversations between them, which are immaterial, will be omitted from the following summarization of his testimony. O'Brien, his wife and stepdaughter Lillian, and Hall and his wife, had...