State v. Huffman

• Decision Date: 13 March 1920
• Docket Number: No. 21890.,21890.
• Citation: 220 S.W. 851
• Parties: STATE v. HUFFMAN.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

220 S.W. 851

STATE v. HUFFMAN.

No. 21890.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

March 13, 1920.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Douglas County; Fred Stewart, Judge.

Henry Huffman was convicted of murder, and he appeals. Affirmed.

Cast by conviction and sentence to serve a term in the penitentiary for the killing of one Fred Zerbst in Douglas county, Mo., on the 17th day of June, 1918, defendant appeals.

Facts.

The defendant and deceased were the only persons present at the tragedy in which deceased lost his life. Deceased was regarded in the neighborhood as a peculiar man, and he and defendant had never gotten along very well. On the morning of the 17th day of June defendant left his home and went to the home of a neighbor for the purpose of obtaining a cradle. He then returned to his own home, left the cradle, and took the blade to one McDaniel to have it sharpened, staying for the noonday meal. After the blade had been sharpened, defendant returned home a little past the middle of the evening, and, learning that his two boys, who had been hoeing corn, had not shut a certain gate, he placed a pistol in his pocket and proceeded in the direction of the gate; he testified that he took the pistol with him because he thought he might see a young rabbit to shoot.

After fastening the gate, he proceeded by some unusual route in the direction where deceased was building a wire fence. Defendant gave the following version of what happened:

"I had started back home, and 4 heard somebody working on the fence. I saw this man, the German; he was kneeling down working with the wire. When I saw that he was kneeling down and couldn't see me, I thinks that, since the feeling don't seem to be very good between us, I just thinks I will avoid speaking to him. I just starts off in an angling direction up to my field. About the time I started he looked up And said, `Howdy.' thought he wanted to say something. So I says, `I see you are fixing it up.' He just stood there a minute. I seen he got mad. `Them boys tramped my corn. Your boys go all over my field.' I says, `I don't believe that; if you will go down there and show it to me, I will pay you for the damage.' `That's no use; I want them boys to stay off from my land.' I told him I would pay the damage, but he just said that he wanted them to stay off, and for me to stay off from his land, too. I got kinda mad, and says, `The same to you; you stay off from my land, too; don't you come over my line.' He began talking about the boys tramping down his corn. I told him again I would pay the damage. Then we disputed each other's word, and he said, `I'll just chop you down with my hatchet,' and made at me, and I whirled and run in something like a northeast direction. He was after me, and I took through the brush. He had this stick in one hand, the hatchet in the other. He was right behind me, almost close enough to hit me. I was just like a cat or something the dogs is after running around in the brush. As I run, I thinks of something to defend myself with. I thought of my knife. I tried to get my knife, and got hold of my gun. He almost bad me, and I whirled and shot about that high, and then I shot two more shots. He just fell over slow, and I seen the blood from the bullet hole. The first I knew I had hit him he was falling.

"Q. Do you mean to tell the jury that as he was falling you shot him in the back of the head? A. I realized I had hit him when he fell.

"Q. Mr. Huffman, do you mean to tell this jury that, as he fell from you, you fired the shot and realized that you had hit him, or that you fired the shot before he fell? A. I realized lie was hit when I seen the hole."

Will Sexton, a witness for the state, testified as follows:

"Q. Now, Bill, what did he [defendant] say about shooting him on the ground? A. I says, `How did you manage to shoot him behind that way?' He said, when he shot him here, he fell down; then, when he was on the ground, he shot him twice more.

"Q. Did he say that? A. Yes, sir; he did. He said, after he was on the ground, he shot him twice."

The record also shows, as admitted by appellant, that there was bad blood between him and deceased, and that deceased had made threats against him, and had complained about defendant's boys tramping down his corn.

Appellant, fully conscious of the existence of the bad blood between him and deceased, on the day of the tragedy deliberately put his pistol in his pocket and went by an unusual route to the place where deceased was building a wire fence on his own land; there they quarreled, disputed each other's word, and an assault resulted, in which appellant shot deceased three times, each shot taking effect; there was an interval of time between the firing of the first shot, which took effect in his right side, and the other two, which took effect in the back of his head. Each of these shots was mortal, and defendant admits substantially, as above set out, that he fired the two last shots after...