State v. Phillips

• Decision Date: 26 March 1947
• Docket Number: 219
• Parties: STATE v. PHILLIPS.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

41 S.E.2d 766

227 N.C. 277

STATE v. PHILLIPS.

No. 219

Supreme Court of North Carolina

March 26, 1947

Criminal prosecution on bill of indictment charging the capital felony of murder.

During the early afternoon of Sunday, August 18, 1946, defendant and his wife, the deceased, were in their home alone. The doors were closed and the radio was going 'at a loud blast.' A pistol shot was heard by neighbors. About ten or fifteen minutes later defendant came out of his back door said that his wife had shot hereself, and went off to notify others. The body was found on the bed. There was a pistol-shot wound in the anterior part of the right arm about midway between the elbow and shoulder and in the right side at the anterior axillary line above the right breast at the level of the fourth rib. The bullet ranged downward and to the back, the exit wound being 2 1/2 to 3 inches to the left of the backbone, below the scalpus, at the level of the eighth rib. No powder burns were found.

There was a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. The court pronounced judgment of death. Defendant excepted and appealed.

Harry M. McMullan, Atty. Gen., and T. W. Bruton, Hughes J. Rhodes and Ralph M. Moody, Asst. Attys. Gen., for the State.

Charles Ross and Neill McK. Salmon, both of Lillington, for defendant-appellant.

BARNHILL Justice.

The defendant offered no testimony. At the conclusion of the evidence of the State his demurrer to the evidence was overruled and he excepted. By this exception he now challenges the sufficiency of the evidence offered.

The record is filled with evidence of family discord, assaults threats, and infidelity of defendant. Detailed repetition would serve no useful purpose. In addition, the testimony tends to show that several weeks prior to the homicide defendant endeavored to buy a pistol; the week before the homicide he borrowed from a friend the pistol with which the deceased was killed; in 1945 he contracted a bigamous marriage with a a woman in Raleigh; his wife learned of this marriage, which became the cause of dissension between them he stated he had gotten rid of his Raleigh wife and 'I'm going to get rid of the other one, I don't need any woman in my business'; and after the shooting he made conflicting statements as to how the homicide occurred. Furthermore, the location of the wound and the absence of powder burns tend to negative the inference the wound was...