State v. Liolios
| Decision Date | 01 December 1920 |
| Docket Number | No. 22228.,22228. |
| Parties | STATE v. LIOLIOS. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Butler County; Almon Ing, Judge.
James Liolios was convicted of murder in the first degree, and he appeals. Reversed and remanded.
The defendant, James Liolios was convicted of the crime of murder in the first degree and sentenced to imprisonment for life in the penitentiary. From this judgment, by proper steps, he has appealed to this court. The defense was insanity on the part of the defendant.
The evidence in behalf of the state tended to show that defendant was a married man engaged in business in Poplar Bluff, Mo., and that he lived with his wife and their two small children and his wife's mother, on the second floor of the Central Hotel in Poplar Bluff; that on the 13th day of January, 1919, the defendant shot and killed his wife in one of the rooms occupied by them' in the Central Hotel; that the shooting was done with a revolver which defendant had purchased on the day of the killing and only a short time before the fatal shot was fired; that deceased was shot in the head and died immediately thereafter from the effects of the wound; that but one shot was fired; and that defendant immediately thereafter surrendered himself to the officers of the law and stated to them and to other persons at the time that he had killed his wife. The evidence for the state further showed that on the day of the homicide defendant had rented a safe deposit box from a local bank and had deposited some papers therein, and that later in the day, and a very short time before the shooting occurred, defendant had removed these papers from the box. This is the substance of the evidence in chief in behalf of the state. None of these facts was denied by the defendant.
The evidence in behalf of the defendant is remarkable in many respects, not the least remarkable phase of it being that the mother of the victim of the tragedy appeared as the principal witness in behalf of the accused. This evidence, cast in narrative form, is in substance as follows:
The defendant, a Greek, and his wife, apparently American-born, had been married about six years before her death. Two children had been born to them. During the whole of their married life they had lived in Poplar Bluff. Mrs. Minnie Travis, the mother of the deceased, had lived with them during all of that time. Mrs. Travis was about 65 years of age, and apparently a widow. About three weeks before the deceased was killed, one Harry Thomas, a plumber from St. Louis, came to Poplar Bluff to work on a building being erected near the Central Hotel, and boarded at that hotel during his nine days' stay in Poplar Bluff. In this way Thomas became acquainted with the deceased, who was a young woman, and the acquaintanceship seems swiftly to have ripened into a criminal intimacy. There is no direct proof that this intrigue had progressed to the extent of illicit sexual intercourse, but there are numerous circumstances which cogently point to that conclusion. It appears that on one occasion Thomas and the deceased were seen together one morning in a room in the hotel when no other person was present. On this occasion Thomas' employer, finding him absent from his work, had gone in search of him and had found him at the Central Hotel in a room alone with Mrs. Liolios. This same witness talked with the deceased about her relations with Thomas, and she admitted to him that she was infatuated with Thomas and intimate with him. It further appeared that Thomas learned, or at least suspected, that the defendant had become aware of this amour, and thereupon, before the work upon which he was engaged was finished, Thomas left Poplar Bluff and returned to St. Louis. From the latter city, Thomas addressed to defendant the following letter:
On the day following this letter, Thomas sent defendant a post card which read as follows:
Addressed: "Mr. James Liolios, Poplar Bluff, Mo., % Central Hotel.
Notwithstanding this contemplated early removal to New York, it appears that on January 11, 1919, Thomas was still in St. Louis, and had decided not to go to New York, for on that date, under a fictitious name, he wrote to the deceased as follows:
All of these communications came to the hands of the defendant in the due course of the mails, a few days prior to the tragedy, and all were identified as being in the handwriting of Thomas.
It appears that about two weeks before the killing occurred a change became apparent in the manner of the defendant. He became unable to attend to business; was unable to eat or sleep; he appeared upon the streets pacing back and forth without speaking to friends whom he knew intimately, his manner intensely nervous, and his demeanor that of a man distraught. His nights were passed in walking the floor of the apartments occupied by himself and wife, and in pleading with her, weeping as he pleaded, to abandon her relations with Thomas and to remain at home with her husband, her mother, and her children. The mother of the deceased joined in these entreaties, but apparently without avail. "
On the day of the homicide, the deceased had determined to go to St. Louis, on a train which apparently left Poplar Bluff about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In the forenoon of that day defendant had rented a safe deposit box in a local bank and had put certain documents in it. About 3 o'clock that afternoon he appeared at the bank and removed these documents, which were, apparently, the letters and postcard above mentioned. He then went to a hardware store across the street from the Central Hotel and purchased a revolver and some cartridges, preparatory to going to St. Louis for an interview with Thomas. Neither the attendant at the bank nor the clerk at the store was asked to describe the appearance or demeanor of defendant at these times, nor did either volunteer any information upon these topics. Defendant then went upstairs to his apartment in the hotel and found his wife sitting in a chair holding her baby in her lap. She was dressed in traveling clothes. Her mother was in another room on the same floor of the hotel, a short distance away from the room in which defendant found his wife. Defendant renewed his entreaties to his wife to abandon Thomas and her relations with him, and continued to plead with her — "praying," as defendant expressed it — until finally she said: "Your prayers don't do you any good; God can't do you any good; don't waste your breath." Whereupon defendant took his revolver from his pocket, shot his wife once in the head, turned and ran down the stair, announcing to some persons whom he met on the stair that he had shot his wife, went down the street to where a deputy sheriff was standing, and informed that official of what he had done, and asked to be arrested.
After being shot, the victim of the tragedy leaned back in her chair and immediately afterwards was lifted to a nearby bed by some persons who were attracted by the sound of the shooting, and died at once.
The defendant also showed that for several weeks prior to the tragedy his conduct toward his wife had been kind and affectionate, and that he provided her with all that she wanted; that he loved his wife, his family, and his home. He also offered, but was not allowed, to prove that during the entire period of his marriage he had been an affectionate, loyal, and...
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