State v. Mitchum, 1

• Decision Date: 12 December 1962
• Docket Number: No. 1,1
• Citation: 258 N.C. 337,128 S.E.2d 665
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE, v. Edward MITCHUM.

Page 665

128 S.E.2d 665

258 N.C. 337

STATE, v. Edward MITCHUM.

No. 1

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Dec. 12, 1962

E. P. Dameron, Marion, for defendant, appellant.

T. W. Bruton, Atty. Gen., for the State.

SHARP, Justice.

The crucial question on this appeal is whether the evidence was sufficient to survive the defendant's motion for nonsuit made at the close of all the evidence.

In summary, the evidence tells the following story:

The defendant and the deceased Harris worked in the same department on the second shift at the Marion Manufacturing Company on Baldwin Avenue in Marion. Defendant was in charge of the department. Six weeks prior to the homicide there had been trouble between the two men in the Mill when Harris had complained that everybody in the department was working against him and that defendant had been talking about him. Defendant had denied the accusation and had cursed him; Harris, a larger man than defendant, had grabbed defendant by the collar and threatened to get him on the outside. As a result of this difficulty, the supervisor suspended Harris for three days. At the end of that time he returned to work with the consent of the defendant; the two men shook hands, and their relations had apparently been friendly from then until the night of the homicide.

There were no witnesses to the homicide. To establish the circumstances of it the State had to rely upon the statement which the defendant made the next morning when he went to the sheriff's office after having been informed that Harris was dead. He told the sheriff, and testified at the trial, that on March 26, 1962 he left the Mill about 11:15 p. m. with D. L. Wood, another employee, and walked north on Baldwin Avenue towards his home. Wood left him at Second Street. Between the Mill and Second Street Harris passed them, driving his automobile south. Just as defendant crossed Third Street, Harris pulled up to the sidewalk and stopped his vehicle headed north. He opened the door on the right and angrily ordered the defendant to get in the car. The defendant refused and asked Harris what was bothering him. Harris got out of the car and responded in abusive language that things were not going right at the Mill. Defendant told him to take his complaints to the Mill office and started walking away. Harris continued his abusive language and, when defendant had gone ten or twelve steps, ran in front of him with an open knife in his left hand, a threeinch blade sticking up from the thumb. Harris grabbed defendant by the collar with his right hand and began hitting him in the mouth and face with his left which held the knife. Defendant's face was never cut during this procedure, but his lip was broken on the inside. While Harris was thus hitting him, defendant struck at Harris several times with his bare fists, took his knife from his pocket, opened it with his thumb, and 'switched' at Harris with it.

On the trial, defendant testified as follows:

'When Harris caught hold of my collar, I did not call anybody. I did not call Mr. Wood and ask him to come up there. Yes, I say that while he had hold of me and had the knife in his left hand, I took my hand and reached down in my pocket and got my knife. Yes, I had to use my thumb to open it. Yes, I was standing and opening my knife and he was standing and hitting me in the face with the knife and did not cut me anywhere in the face. Yes, that is the knife I took out of my pocket and I opened it while I was standing there and switched at him three or four times and he still had hold of my collar. I was swinging at him; I don't know how far I went around; * * * I had my knife somewhere around waist-high. My knife did not ever stop that I know. As soon as I switched around three or four times, I broke and ran. I knocked him loose with my left hand. I never did get loose until I got my knife out.'

According to defendant, when he broke loose he had been cut across his coat collar, his left sleeve, and scratched on his right hand and left arm. When he ran from the scene Harris ran after him as hard as he could run for 150 feet to Fourth Street. He then turned around and went back to his car, put on the headlights and started the motor. The defendant went on to his home on Baldwin Avenue, a short distance from Fourth Street, and told his wife what had occurred. At that time, his lips were swollen and...