State v. Jackson, 31693.

• Decision Date: 17 February 1932
• Docket Number: No. 31693.,31693.
• Citation: 48 S.W.2d 936
• Parties: STATE v. JACKSON.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

48 S.W.2d 936

STATE v. JACKSON.

No. 31693.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

February 17, 1932.

Respondent's Motion to Modify Opinion Sustained April 8, 1932.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; John W. Calhoun, Judge.

Charles Jackson was convicted of murder in the first degree, and he appeals.

Affirmed.

Abbott, Fauntleroy, Cullen & Edwards, of St. Louis, for appellant.

Stratton Shartel, Atty. Gen., and Denton Dunn, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

FITZSIMMONS, C.

Defendant was charged by indictment in the city of St. Louis with murder, in the first degree, of his wife, Edna Jackson. Upon trial he was found guilty as charged, and his punishment was assessed at imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. His motion for a new trial having been overruled, and final judgment rendered, defendant appealed.

Evidence on behalf of the state tended to prove the following facts: Defendant and his wife, Edna, and their four year old son lived on the third floor of a tenement building at No. 123 Elm street, St. Louis. On July 5, 1930, at 7 p. m., Viola Arnold, who lived at No. 125 Elm street, next door to the Jacksons, was seated in a chair in the roadway of Elm street in front of her dwelling, with her feet resting against the curbstone. While Viola Arnold was so seated, Edna Jackson, defendant's wife, came out of her home and sat on the curbstone beside Viola. Shortly after Edna Jackson seated herself on the curb, defendant came out of the house, rushed at his wife, and struck her with his fists. Viola Arnold retreated to the door of her house, and, looking back, saw defendant strike his wife on the head with the chair in which Viola had been sitting. The cross-pieces of the seat of the chair were broken by the violence of the blows. Roberta McCoy who also lived next door to the Jacksons, testified to the blows with the chair upon the head of deceased. She also testified that defendant, after striking his wife with the chair, helped her up stairs to their rooms, and there he kicked her many times, the while demanding of the wife where were his trousers and his $10. The wife cried: "Don't do that, Charlie." But he declared with vile epithets: "I will kill you." And he continued to kick her while she lay on the floor in a huddle. These things Roberta McCoy saw and heard from the vantage point of the fire escape whence she looked into the rooms of the Jacksons. Police Officer Geisman testified that, on the afternoon of July 9th, four days after the assault with the chair and the kicking, defendant informed the officer that he (defendant) wanted his wife, Edna Jackson, taken to the city hospital; that she had fallen down the steps on July 5th at 3 p. m. The policeman went to the rooms of the Jacksons and found the woman lying on a bed, unconscious, and fully dressed. Geisman called an ambulance and had her removed to the hospital where she died the same day without recovering consciousness. Police Officer Dependahl testified that defendant, when questioned, first denied and then admitted that he had struck his wife with the chair. Defendant gave as a reason that his wife had remained away from their home, the night before, with another man, as defendant alleged. A post mortem examination of the body of the dead woman showed discoloration on the right side of the face, right arm, and thighs, bumps on the temples, cuts on the hands and left temple, abrasions on the knee-caps and right thigh, all of which the coroner's physician testified could be caused by the forms of violence to which witnesses had testified. The examination also revealed a hemorrhage, in the inner lining of the skull, and this, it was testified, was the cause of death. It was a cortical hemorrhage, caused by violence, the doctor testified.

Defendant, on his own behalf, testified that his wife had been away from home the night of July 4th, and that she returned early on the morning of the 5th. She was drunk and brought with her some whisky. He complained of her neglect of her household duties, her absence from home, and drinking habits. She stayed in their quarters all day, but about 7 p. m. she went down stairs and he went after her, thinking that she was going where she had been the night before. When he found her at the sidewalk curb, he slapped her with his open hand, and struck her about the body with the chair. He testified that she was standing up when he struck her with the chair, and that the blow did not knock her down. He denied that he kicked her at any time. He claimed that she fell down the stairs in their quarters twice, the first time on July 5th, before he struck her, and the second time on July 7th. When she fell the second time, her head struck against a step, he said.

The trial was begun on December 11, 1930, and, at the close of a night session on ...