State v. Sheffield

• Decision Date: 11 April 1934
• Docket Number: 2.
• Citation: 174 S.E. 105,206 N.C. 374
• Parties: STATE v. SHEFFIELD.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

174 S.E. 105

206 N.C. 374

STATE v. SHEFFIELD.

No. 2.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

April 11, 1934

Appeal from Superior Court, Haywood County; Alley, Judge.

James Sheffield was convicted of murder in the first degree, and he appeals.

No error.

The defendant was convicted of the murder in the first degree of James Miller, whom he was charged with shooting on the night of August 6 and died on August 7, 1933. He was sentenced to be electrocuted. The judgment of death by the court below concludes with these words: "And it is considered adjudged and ordered that the said warden then and there cause a current of electricity of sufficient intensity and voltage to cause death, to pass in and through your body until you are dead; and may the Great God, who notes even the Sparrow's fall, in his infinite pity, have mercy on your soul."

The evidence, in part, by the witnesses for the state, is as follows: James L. Welch: "This was on August 6th, Sunday night, just after dark. I don't recall for sure who was there at the time of the shooting; Alvin Parker and three or four was sitting around but I can't remember who it was but anyway the night of the shooting Bud (James) Miller came in the store and bought some cigars from me and he said that Mr. Pipes was out in the car. As soon as I got the cigars I turned around and we walked to Pipe's car, which was parked toward Rickman's steps that goes to the house about four to six feet from the northwest corner of Rickman's corner toward the gas tank. I could not tell from where he had come. Miller and myself stood outside the car and talked to Mr. Pipes in the car some few minutes and Mr. Pipes said-Miller turned around to go in the store to get some matches and when he turned, to go back I turned around just behind him, following him. Prior to that, I had seen James Sheffield in front of Cogburn's store about 15 or 20 minutes before that. As Miller turned around to go back in the store, he was something like six to eight feet ahead of me and I followed him back in and as he stepped on the concrete under Rickman's shed at the left window as you go in, it looked like he jumped up about that high (indicating) and as he done that he turned his face back to me and he hollered, 'Oh, Lord, Oh, Lord, I am shot, I am killed,' and he fell like you had picked him up and throwed him down, and I walked up to him and I said "You know you are not shot,' and he said-

By the Court: How long was it after you heard the shot fire until you got to him? A. Two or three seconds.

And I said, 'You know you are not shot, and he said, 'Yes I am killed,' and I squatted down over him on the balls of my feet, and Alvin Parker walked up behind me and said, 'He is not shot, is he?' The shooting continued after that until six shots were fired. I squatted down over Miller and put this finger on the hole and I noticed the blood, and Parker said, 'He ain't shot, is he?' And I said, 'I will be damned if he ain't,' and right then I was hit in the jaw and it knocked me over and I caught on Miller with that hand, and as I raised up, one bullet cut me across there (indicating shoulder), that just scraped the hide and I got up and I kept facing where the shooting was coming from; I got up and started to back up, was backing up around the corner of Rickman's store, and I saw the fire come out of the Sheffield Garage, and I backed up around the corner of the building and I saw the man as I backed around and he, Sheffield, was in between his candy car, parked on the left side of that double door, and he was in on the right side of it, and I backed around this building and I put my hands up on the building and I looked back around at him and he shot the last shot at me and I was looking at him and he knowed it. I saw him. Six shots were fired in all. I was hit twice.

Q. Did you see him any more after the shooting? A. No, but while I was around there, I had backed around the building, and Jud Pipes kept wanting to know what was going on, or what was happening.

By the Court: Did he ask you that while the shooting was going on? A. Yes, sir.

I backed around the building and Mr. Pipes was turned like he was trying to get out of his car and I said, 'Jud, don't get out, it is Jim Sheffield over in that garage shooting at me and he might shoot you,' and just after the shooting, I said to Mr. Pipes, he had got out of the car, and I said, 'Miller is bad hurt and we will have to get him to town, and if I don't get to a doctor, I will bleed to death.' I was wounded here and it come out here (indicating on right jaw where the bullet entered, and the left jaw where it came out).

Q. Come down and tell the jury where you were hit and how many teeth were knocked out? A. (Witness shows jury.) Here on the right side, it went in and come out here and it bursted the jaw bone and they took out some pieces at the hospital. I don't know how many teeth it knocked out.

Q. State whether or not you and Jim Sheffield had ever had any trouble prior to this time? A. Yes, we had.

Q. About how long before this, Mr. Welch? A. We hadn't had any trouble in some time; it has been nearly three years ago, the last words we had.

Q. Tell just what happened on that occasion? What did James Sheffield try to do to you, if anything, and what he did?"

The witness gave in detail the trouble he had with Sheffield three years before: "James Sheffield and I have not talked any and have had nothing to do with each other since that time. * * * When I backed around the corner, I saw where the fire was coming from when the fourth shot was fired, and saw the man when the fifth shot was fired. I saw the fire from the fourth shot and backed around the corner of the building; as I backed around the corner of the building, before I got around it, is when the fifth shot was fired and when the sixth shot was fired, I was standing there looking around the corner. I wasn't sure who it was until the last shot, but I saw Jim Sheffield when the fifth shot was fired. Six shots were fired and he fired one shot after I recognized him. When the sixth shot was fired, his candy truck was parked on the left side of the door and there was a space there and he was on the right side of that candy wagon, on the right side of the car. I can't say how far he was standing from the front door, he come up into the light. I can't tell you how far back in the building he was; he was somewhere about five or six feet of the front. There were no lights in the building, nothing except the reflection from Rickman's store. The first lights of Rickman's store would be about sixty or seventy feet away. There was 160 watt electric light globe in front of Rickman's store. I recognized him six feet back in the garage; I can't say that is as far out as he come. * * * After the shooting, I said I would have to get Miller to a Doctor, and I said I was going to have to get to one or I was going to bleed to death. I came to Waynesville in the same car with Miller. Hugh Cathey was driving and John Michael and Turner Vance was in the back seat with Miller. I told the jury I made some statement to Jud Pipes. He said, 'What is going on, what does that shooting mean?' as I backed up around the building and I heard him trying to get out of his car and I said, 'Jud, don't get out, it is Jim Sheffield over in that garage and it is me he is after, and he might shoot you.' At that time I was awful mad at Jim Sheffield, about as mad as a man could be."

Kenneth Lowe: "I am the son of the Sheriff and was over at Silver Bluff that night. I went in the garage as described by Mr. Welch and found some cartridge hulls. That looks like the same ones I found. I found them on the floor of the garage about six or eight feet from the door, on the right side of the candy car as you went in. I only noticed one car in the garage. These are calibre 25-20. The candy wagon was in this garage when I went over there."

Jud Pipes: "I know Jim Sheffield, James Welch and knew James Miller, the deceased. I remember this Sunday evening. I was with James Miller, who is known as Bud Miller. He come to Waynesville with me and then went back out with me. We reached Rickman's store about good dark, the best I remember, and stopped there. Miller got out to get some cigars and went in the store and got them and come back and gave them to me and he went back to get some matches; he asked me if I had any matches and he had started back to the store to get the matches. Jim Welch was with him.

Bud was in front when they started back, and about the time he got under the shed I heard a shot fire and in a second or two Bud hollered and said he was shot; he said he was shot and killed. When I got up to where I could see out, Welch was stooping down over Miller, I was sitting with my back to them practically, and there was another shot or two fired and Jim Welch come back out like he was backing out around the corner of the building. I asked Jim Welch what was going on and what that shooting meant, and I started to get out of the car and he told me not to get out; he said it was Jim Sheffield over in the garage shooting at him and I might get shot. After the shooting was over, I got out of the car and was helping carry Miller over to put him in the car to take him to the hospital and there was another gun fired after we got across the road. I wasn't in position to see where the shots were coming from because I was sitting with my back toward them. I thought there were six shots fired, and I thought it was coming from across the road, that is the way it sounded."

Alvin Parker: "I was present at the Rickman store the night James Miller was shot and lost his life. I had been there about thirty minutes before the shooting occurred and saw Jim Sheffield there,...