State v. Smith
| Decision Date | 21 March 1945 |
| Docket Number | 220 |
| Citation | 33 S.E.2d 472,225 N.C. 78 |
| Parties | STATE v. SMITH. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Objections to portions of charge stating contentions of state reasonably inferable from evidence in the record were waived by accused's failure to object thereto at the time court stated such contentions.
Criminal prosecution upon indictment charging defendant with the crime of arson. G.S. s 14-58.
In the trial court the State offered evidence tending to show these facts: That the two-room house owned and occupied by Lula Stevens, a State's witness and mother of Connie Smith, wife of defendant, situated in Greytown across the river from Smithfield, was burned between 10 and 12 o'clock on the night of 2 September, 1944; that at that time Connie Smith, wife of defendant, and a child of her and defendant, were in bed in the house; that previously Lula Stevens had had the defendant arrested in connection with trouble between him and his wife, and defendant had threatened to get even with her for 'putting the law' on him; that during the afternoon before the fire occurred defendant walked up and down the road in front of the house of Lula Stevens, saying nothing, but looking at her and 'rolling his eyes'; that he came to the house and asked if his wife were there, and on being told that she had gone to town, he whirled around and left; that later he came back and said to Lula Stevens, 'You got my child in your house and I am going to get even with you'; that later on that night Lula Stevens, hearing a noise at the back corner of her house, opened the door and there saw defendant in reaching distance and saw him run into a cornfield; that in a few minutes fire was discovered in the corner of the house on the outside, and Lula Stevens exclaimed 'Lord, have mercy, Ernie has set the house on fire' and that she called for others to bring water, repeating 'Ernie has set the house on fire'. Exception by defendant.
Also the State was permitted, over objection by defendant, to offer testimony of Lula Stevens that previously, when she had heard her daughter screaming, she had said to defendant 'Ernie, what in the world is the matter?', and he replied, 'Connie told Danza a damn lie on me and I tried to break her damn neck '. Exception.
On the other hand, the defendant offered evidence tending to negative the evidence of the State.
Verdict Guilty of the felony of arson whereof he stands charged in the bill of indictment, but with recommendation that he be sentenced to life imprisonment.
Judgment: Confinement in Central Prison at Raleigh, North Carolina, for the term of his natural life.
Defendant appeals to Supreme Court, assigning errors.
Harry M. McMullan, Atty. Gen., and Hughes J. Rhodes and Ralph M. Moody, Asst. Attys. Gen., for the State.
Levinson, Pool & Batton, of Smithfield, for defendant appellant.
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