State v. Holly

• Decision Date: 31 May 1911
• Parties: STATE v. HOLLY.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

71 S.E. 450

155 N.C. 485

STATE v. HOLLY.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

May 31, 1911

Appeal from Superior Court, New Hanover County; Peebles, Judge.

J. G Holly was convicted of murder, and he appeals. Reversed for new trial.

Character witness may be asked if there was not a general reputation before controversy, tending to discredit.

The defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree. He was sentenced to be electrocuted, and appeals to this court.

The defendant offered no evidence.

That introduced on the part of the state tends to show: That the defendant, J. C. Holly, was the proprietor of a hotel in the city of Wilmington, known as the Rock Spring Hotel. That the deceased, Edward Cromwell, was a boy about 18 years of age who lived with the defendant, and the defendant spoke of adopting him. It does not appear what relation, if any, the deceased bore to the defendant. That about March 27, 1910 the Life Insurance Company of Virginia received an application for a $1,000 policy on the life of Edward Cromwell, but declined to issue same for lack of information as to the parentage of the young man. The agent of the Virginia Company told Holly and Cromwell that they might get a policy with the Greensboro Life, and also told the agent of the Greensboro Life that he might get an application from these people. That about June 20, 1910, application was made to the Greensboro Life Insurance Company for a $5,000 policy on the life of Edward Cromwell. The company issued a $2,500 policy, the beneficiary named being the estate of Edward Cromwell, and the policy was delivered to Holly and Cromwell jointly, Holly paying the premium. That about a week after the policy was delivered Holly and Cromwell requested the agent of the Greensboro Life to make out the papers for the transfer of the policy to Holly and the transfer was duly made, and probated on the evening of August 8th. That Holly said he intended to adopt the young man and educate him and will him all his property, and that he expected the boy to take care of him in his old age. That the agent said to Holly that the transfer would have to be sent to the home office and be approved before the assignment would be valid, and that Holly, so far as the agent of the Greensboro Life knew, had never been notified that the policy had been transferred to him by the home office. That Holly had insured his furniture for $1,250, stating to the insurance agent at the time the policy was issued that the furniture was worth $1,700. That the agent of the company made an examination after the fire, and valued the furniture at $450. That something was said to Holly about there not being much furniture in the house, and Holly said he had shipped a part of it away. That in June, 1910, the defendant, Holly, bought one dram of strychnine from a drug store in Wilmington, saying that he wanted it for the purpose of killing rats, and on August 3, 1910, he bought another dram for the same alleged purpose. That on the night of August 9, 1910, the boy, Cromwell, came into the hotel about 10 o'clock eating an ice cream cone. That some time after 10 o'clock, one Matthews, the occupant of the room No. 8 in the hotel, heard some one who seemed to be in great agony. Room No. 4, where deceased was found, was about six feet from room No. 8, occupied by Mr. Matthews. That Matthews heard a low voice like some one crying to another, and then heard a little whiffling sound which he recognized as a peculiar noise made by Holly with his nose. That after the fire witness asked Holly what all the trouble meant in the house that night, and Holly said he was having one of his spells and his boy was fanning him. That on the same night--that is, about 2:30 a. m. on the morning of August 10th--an alarm of fire was turned in, and Holly's hotel was found to be on fire.

W. P. Monroe, assistant chief of the fire department, testifies as follows: "I am assistant chief of the fire department of the city of Wilmington. On the morning of August 10, 1910, we had an alarm of fire from box 25, and upon responding to that alarm we found the fire in the old Rock Spring Hotel, occupied by the prisoner, at No. 8 Chestnut street. I heard people hollering, and ordered the men to rescue the people from the windows, which they did. I went in the building from the front, and, when I came out, the prisoner asked me if I had seen his boy, the one that worked in the kitchen, and I asked him where he was, and he said he usually occupied room No. 4, on the right side of the passage. I went back in the building, and found the boy lying in the room No. 4 dead. His head was to the south, his feet to the north, and he was lying on an old comfort, which was burned up, except the part which was underneath him. I went back to the street and told Holly that the man was dead in No. 4, and that, if he had told me in time, I could have gotten him out. When I told him the boy was dead, he cried. I examined the room, and found that there was a bed, bedstead, mattress, and a grip in the room. The head of the bed was towards the north and the body was lying between the bed and the door, with his feet towards the north. The body was near the foot of the bed. There was nothing on the bed except the sheet and pillow, and the bed did not look like it had been occupied. Mr. Farrow, Mr. Frost, and myself took the body out. It was then stiff and cold. I discovered the body somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes after I got to the fire. The fire was then out. The body was stiff, with hands drawn upon the breast clenched. He had the thumb placed between the two fingers (turned under the forefinger). He appeared to be about 18 years old, and would weigh about 110 pounds, and was about 4 feet and 6 inches tall. The main fire was in the adjoining room, and the partition between this room and room No. 4, where the boy was, had burned out. The mattress which I found in this room was saturated with kerosene on it, and it had burned up to where the boy's body was on it. I detected odors something like kerosene. The fire was burning very badly in the adjoining room. It seemed to have originated there. After I took the body out, I placed it in the front room until the coroner was notified. I did not see the coroner. The body was taken to King's undertaking shop. I asked the prisoner about his furniture, and he said he had shipped some that belonged to Mr. Flowers in Pikeville; didn't say when he shipped it. There didn't seem to be very much furniture in the house. When I opened room No. 4, it was full of smoke and steam. Chief Schibben was there at that time. The windows were shut down, and we broke the glass out. The body was dressed in socks and underwear. I saw two kerosene oil cans in the room where the fire originated and an empty vinegar barrel."

An autopsy was held, and a part of the liver, a part of the lungs, and the stomach were sent to W. A. Withers, professor of chemistry in the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts who analyzed parts of the stomach and found two-fifths of a grain of strychnine in the stomach. Five tests were made, and all of these disclosed the presence of strychnine in the stomach. Prof. Withers and the doctors testified that one-half of a grain of strychnine is the minimum dose that will produce death, but that the strychnine which kills is the portion assimilated and distributed through the blood, and not the portion that remains in the stomach, and that he made no tests of the liver and lungs. The court put the following hypothetical...