State v. Smith

• Decision Date: 30 October 1940
• Docket Number: 363.
• Citation: 11 S.E.2d 165,218 N.C. 334
• Parties: STATE v. SMITH.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

11 S.E.2d 165

218 N.C. 334

STATE v. SMITH.

No. 363.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

October 30, 1940

The defendant was tried at the February Term, 1940, of Sampson Superior Court upon a charge of murder, was convicted of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to death.

The evidence tended to show that William Daniel, a man of about sixty years of age living alone on a small farm in Sampson County, was found dead near a path leading from his home through the field and into the woods. His skull had been fractured and there were several lacerations about the face and head. Death was attributed to a fracture of the skull. A brick and bloody cherry limb were found near the body.

On the next day the defendant, who lived near Daniel's home was arrested for the murder. The evidence tends to show that prior to the time he was arrested the defendant went to his aunt's house and requested her "if the law came" to tell that he stayed at her house on Saturday night, and to tell them that she lent him five dollars. He explained that there was a "mess-up" and he was afraid they might try to get him in it.

The defendant first denied the killing, but there is evidence tending to show that upon being confronted with the brick which was found near the body of the deceased and with other evidence tending to connect him with the killing, he made a voluntary confession, admitting and giving particulars of the killing. This confession, as taken, is as follows: "I spent Saturday night, October 28, 1939, at my home alone getting up Sunday morning, October 29, about 7:00 o'clock. I then went to my possum traps about a half mile from home. After passing the first possum trap I picked up a brickbat lying on the side of the road and put it in my pocket. This was the same brickbat Sheriff Tart showed me on Thursday morning. After picking up the brickbat, I turned down a little road leading to an old house sitting in the field where I was born at. I turned there at the yard and looked at a possum trap a short distance from this old house by a persimmon tree. From this trap I cut across the tobacco field, jumped a ditch to another path leading to Mr. William Daniel's home. I went on to Mr. Daniel's home getting to Mr. Daniel's about 8:00 o'clock, as near as I could guess. Mr. Daniels was in the back of the house fixing breakfast. Mr. Daniels asked me to come in. I went in the back door. Mr. Daniels and I eat breakfast. Mr. Daniels had a piece of a jar of white whiskey sitting on the dining room table. Mr. Daniels offered me a drink, which I took then Mr. Daniels took a drink. We talked at his home for about an hour. We both took another drink. Mr. Daniels asked me where I was going. I told him I was going over to Charlie Smith's. Mr. Daniels said he believed he would walk over and go to see Mr. Charlie Rouse. We both left there after I had been there about an hour by way of the back door and back porch. Mr. Daniels did not lock up the house or leave from the front way. We walked together down the little path leading from Mr. Daniel's house, turned right about five hundred feet, then turned to our left down a little path leading in the general direction of Mr. Charlie Rouse's home. As we got down the path some one-quarter of a mile, this brickbat I had in my pocket, I took it out, hit Mr. Daniels over the head, knocking him down. The brickbat breaking in half, flying out of my hand, I reached down in the bushes nearby, picked up a limb of cherry wood and then hit Mr. Daniels with the piece of cherry wood three or four times. I did not hit him but one time with the brick. After searching one or two pockets of Mr. Daniels, I found $16.00 folded in a small square bundle in his right watch pocket. This money I removed from his pocket, the denomination of which was two $5.00 bills and six one dollar bills. Mr. Daniels did not say anything to me when I hit him with the brickbat, but as he fell he did make a gurgling sound. After I had hit him three or four times with the cherry limb noticing Mr. Daniels was not struggling, I picked up his hat which had fallen off to one side and placed it on Mr. Daniels head, the side of his head, as he lay on the ground in the position he fell. After searching Mr. Daniels I hurried away from the place where I had hit him. The first place I stopped after hitting Mr. Daniels was at Jack Faison's home, staying there about thirty minutes. From there I went to Charlie Smith's about 10:30 o'clock. Of this 16 dollars that I had taken from Mr. Daniels' pocket after I had killed him, I spent as near as I can figure about $3.00 of this money at Charlie Smith's for whiskey. I paid Jack Faison $3.00 of this money that I owed Jack and his sister, Hannah. I loaned Roosevelt Faison $1.25, his brother Rufus $.75 cents, his brother Frank, 75 cents, and lost some three or four dollars skinning Sunday and Sunday night. Monday morning, after spending the night with Colonel James Aycock, I spent fifty cents at Mr. McCleny's filling station about 7:30 o'clock for a gallon of gas, tobacco and cigarettes. When we left the filling station Monday morning, after making these purchases, I with Colonel James Aycock and Ernest Aycock went to my Aunt Delia Smith's, which is a few hundred yards over the Duplin County line. My purpose for going to see Aunt Delia was to ask her if the law came there inquiring for me for her to tell them that I spent Saturday night at her house. Tell them that she loaned me some money too. I told her that there was a mess out and I was afraid they might get it on me. Me, Ernest Aycock, and Colonel James Aycock left Aunt Delia's and came back to Ernest Aycock's. From there I went on over to Charlie Smith's, which is a few hundred yards across the field, where I again got in a skin game and there during Monday lost three or four dollars. I also bought about $1.50 worth of liquor from Charlie Smith. From Charlie Smith's I went to Eve Cox, where the Sampson County officers arrested me sometime Monday afternoon. The brickbat that I picked up on the way to my traps and hit Mr. Daniels with and broke in two pieces when shown this same brick in two parts by Sheriff Tart and two other officers on November 3, I took Sheriff Tart and these officers to the place where I killed Mr. Daniels and showed them the place where I had thrown the brickbat immediately after hitting Mr. Daniels. I then took the Sheriff and the same two officers to the place and pointed out to them where I had picked this brickbat up from a bunch of weeds on Sunday morning, showing them the imprint in the weeds where the brick had lain. The officers placed this brickbat back in the imprint and showed me that the brickbat fitted in the place where I showed them I picked the brickbat up from. I noticed that Sunday morning near a bridge not far from Mr. Daniels' house a place that a fire had been built. The coals were still hot as I passed going towards Mr. Daniels' home. I do not know who built this fire but the officer showed it to me and I remembered seeing it as I went to Mr. Daniel's house and killed and robbed Mr. Daniels as near as I can figure from 9:00 to 9:30 o'clock. I spent most of Sunday evening at Charlie Smith's drinking and skinning. I went to Eve Cox home Sunday night where Eve gave me change for one of the $5.00 bills which I had taken from Mr. Daniels. Eve Cox gave me this change, giving me five one dollar bills. Monday morning after my visit and conversation with Aunt Delia, I spent most of Monday evening at Charlie Smith's skinning. From there I went to Eve Cox, where I was later arrested. After I was arrested, I was brought to the jail in Clinton, North Carolina. I told Sheriff Tart in the first conversation with him that I spent Saturday night with Aunt Delia but after I told him I knew he knowed I was telling a story and I told him the truth which was that I stayed at my home Saturday night and did not borrow any money from Aunt Delia."

The voluntariness of this confession was denied by defendant, and, on motion of defendant, evidence was taken in the absence of the jury as to the circumstances under which it was made, upon which its competency was sustained and it was admitted in evidence.

Alve Rouse testified that he knew William Daniel and saw him Sunday, October 29, 1939, between eleven and twelve o'clock. "He was lying with his hands out and with his head turned down. When I found him I ran every step of the way from there home; I ran in the house and told my mama and daddy about it and they cranked up. I did not see Mr. Daniel any more that day until the Sheriff and Coroner went back over there with me, then I saw him again. His head was beat up. When I found him there I picked his head up between my fingers and looked at his face,--how he was beat up, and I left there running. He was dead at that time. He was in Sampson County, just across the line about 100 yards near the Duplin line, near Warsaw; he was about 300 yards from his house and about one mile from my house. It was not in the woods that I found him; it was in a big field. I didn't see anything on the ground around him at all. I didn't see any stick or brickbat. I first went to the place and found him and later went back that afternoon with the Sheriff. I went twice before he was moved. His body was warm when the Coroner and Sheriff got there in the afternoon between 1:00 and 2:00 o'clock. He lived alone. He was a married man with two children but was not living with his wife and children." This witness further testified that the defendant, Zedikiel Smith, lived about three or four hundred yards from Mr. Daniel's home.

Dr Royal, the Coroner, testified, as an expert, that he had been called on to view William Daniel and did examine him about twelve o'clock noon. He found...