State v. Lashley
| Decision Date | 12 December 1927 |
| Docket Number | No. 27972.,27972. |
| Citation | 300 S.W. 732 |
| Parties | STATE v. LASHLEY. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; Anthony F. Ittner, Judge.
William Lashley was convicted of murder in the first degree, and he appeals. Reversed and remanded for new trial.
Fred A. Bottger and Lee A. Hall, both of St. Louis, for appellant.
North T. Gentry, Atty. Gen., and J. D. Purteet, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
The appellant (a negro) was charged by indictment with first degree murder in the circuit court of the city of St. Louis. Upon trial the jury found him guilty of murder in the first degree and fixed his punishment at death. He was sentenced to hang, and appealed.
The evidence spreads over a broad field of details and abounds with repetitions concerning unimportant matters. However, a full statement of the controlling facts of the case can be made within reasonable limits.
It appears from the evidence offered by the state that the victim of the alleged homicide was Sidney Sears, a lieutenant of the St. Louis police force. He had a record of distinguished service extending over a period of 25 years, and at the time of the unfortunate affair which resulted in his death was in charge of the Homicide Squad and noted as an expert marksman with a revolver. About 2:15 in the morning of June 22, 1924, Lieutenant Sears and Officers Mergelkamp and Stowell left Central District Station, at 108 South Twelfth street in a Buick touring car in response to an emergency call at 1433 Papin street, where a "cutting scrape" was reported. The car was parked near the northeast corner of the intersection of Papin and Fourteenth streets, fronting towards the northeast, and about 12 feet from the curb line of Papin street. The parking of the car in this fashion was due to construction work on Fourteenth street at this point and north of the intersection. Sears, who rode on the left side of the back seat, remained in the car because he was not feeling well, and the other two officers got out of the car and went a short distance west on Papin street (1433) to investigate the "cutting scrape." Sears was dressed in plain clothes and wore a black hat. Officer Mergelkamp testified that Sears' police badge or "shield" was pinned on the outside of his coat. There was a big bright arc light on the northeast corner of the intersection, near the front of the car. One witness for the state (Anna Gerken) said: "You can read from the light, it is so light." Two workmen at the plant of the Merchants' Ice & Coal Company (Church and Hamilton), located near the northwest corner of Pepin and Thirteenth streets, saw the officers park the car and, shortly thereafter, saw appellant approach the car from the north on Fourteenth street. Both of these witnesses testified that appellant walked up to the car on the right side and appeared to be carrying his right hand up close to his right side; that he placed his left hand on the car just back of the front seat and after standing there "a few seconds," "not quite a minute," he raised his right hand and fired a shot into the car; then a shot was fired from the rear seat of the car, and then appellant continued to fire a volley of shots, "but the range of fire changed just a little;" then appellant walked around the rear of the car and ran across Fourteenth street to the northwest and out of sight. Several other witnesses for the state, negro residents of the neighborhood, were aroused by the first shot. Some of them saw appellant standing near the car and saw him fire several shots into the car and then run across to the west side of Fourteenth street and disappear. One of these witnesses (Kate Hardy) said that, after appellant was arrested and brought back to the scene of the shooting, she heard appellant say to the officers:
"Please don't hit me any more; I will tell you the truth; I thought it was a holdup."
This witness also said she saw the officers beat appellant. Officers Mergelkamp and Stowell heard the shots and returned to the car by different routes. They said the second shot made a louder report than the first shot and the volley of shots that followed the second shot. Mergelkamp found appellant attempting to hide behind a post in an alleyway west of Fourteenth street and north of Papin street about 125 feet from the car. He also found appellant's pistol (.32-.20) sticking in the ground behind a big stone. After he arrested appellant and while walking with him along the alleyway, he saw appellant throw 5 cartridges and a half dollar coin into an open vault nearby. The cartridges and coin were recovered and produced at the trial. When questioned by Mergelkamp, appellant said he had run away from a negro crap game where there was some shooting. Mergelkamp admitted that he struck appellant with his pistol and cut his lip; this, he said, he did because appellant struck him. Two officers in uniform, who took charge of appellant after his arrest, did not testify. One of the witnesses for the state (Hamilton) said appellant's lower lip was split, the side of his face was bloody, and there was a "swollen spot" on the side of his head. Sears was found unconscious, probably dead, leaning backward in the back seat of the car, with his head extending out of the left side of the car. He was pronounced dead at the City Hospital a few minutes later, and 6 bullets were removed from his body. All of these bullets entered the front part of his body and one penetrated his heart. His revolver (a special Colt's .44) was found on the floor of the car and had in it one empty shell. A bullet hole was discovered in the lower edge of the top or canopy of the car on the right side and directly opposite to the position in which Sears was found in the car.
It further appeared from the state's evidence that appellant showed his pistol to one of his neighbors (Lee) a few days before the shooting, and Lee testified that appellant referred to it as a "sure `null gun." This witness also said that he saw appellant during the early part of the night of the shooting, and appellant ."looked like he had been drinking a little," and that "he seemed to be a little bit intoxicated." Appellant also showed his pistol to his brother-in-law (Gholston) about 9 o'clock on the night of the shooting in appellant's home, where Gholston spent the night as a visitor. Gholston said appellant left the house about 1 o'clock. Appellant's stepdaughter (Otho Belle Hunter), 14 years old, testified that he took his pistol out from under his pillow and left home about 12 or 1 o'clock. When asked about his condition at that time, she said, "He wasn't very drunk." The state's evidence showed no previous acquaintance or difficulty between Lieutenant Sears and appellant.
Appellant took the stand and testified rather at length in his own behalf. He said he was a native of Mount Pleasant, Tenn., but had lived in St. Louis 14 years, and for the last 4 years at 1706a Gratiot street, one block north and three blocks west of the corner where the shooting occurred. He admitted that the pistol found by Officer Mergelkamp was his pistol, and said he bought it a few weeks before in East St. Louis. He also admitted that he fired 6 shots with this pistol at the man in the car, but denied throwing the 5 cartridges and the half dollar coin into the vault after his arrest in the alleyway. He said he left his home between 12 and 1 o'clock to take his pistol to the home of his brother (John Lashley), because his brother was going to Caruthersville, Missouri, to work and his brother's wife wanted the pistol to protect herself; that he had promised his brother in the afternoon he would bring the pistol that night, but could not go earlier because he had company at his house; that his brother lived on Papin street, a short distance east of Fourteenth street, and that he was walking along the north side of Papin street and was approaching Fourteenth street when he first noticed the car parked on the intersection of Papin and Fourteenth streets; that he could not see anybody in the car, but thought there might be a man and woman in the car, and that he "would bore around the car and try not to disturb them." As to what happened at this time, appellant further testified as follows:
On cross-examination, he said that the car was parked "directly north and south" in the middle of the intersection; that he did not go up to the car, but was standing on the west side of the car and about 10 feet from the car when he emptied his gun. When asked why he emptied his gun, he said:
"I didn't know who was shooting at me, and I was trying to protect myself the best I could, and I was scared; I didn't know who was shooting at me."
He further said he had his pistol in his hand, wrapped in a piece of newspaper, and when questioned as to how he removed the newspaper to shoot, he said:
He further testified that he did not know Lieutenant Sears and had never seen him. Lucy Higgins, who lived at 1402 Papin street, was produced as a witness for appellant. She said she was sitting in her front window in the second house west of the intersection on the south side of Papin street; that she saw...
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