State v. Taylor, 47339

• Decision Date: 12 October 1959
• Docket Number: No. 1,No. 47339,47339,1
• Citation: 327 S.W.2d 880
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Louis TAYLOR, Appellant
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 880

327 S.W.2d 880

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Louis TAYLOR, Appellant.

No. 47339.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

Oct. 12, 1959.

Louis Taylor, pro se.

John M. Dalton, Atty. Gen., Hugh P. Williamson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

COIL, Commissioner.

A jury convicted defendant Louis Taylor of murder in the second degree and fixed his punishment at commitment to the Department of Corrections for a term of fifteen years. He has appealed from the ensuing judgment, and contends first that the trial court erred in submitting the issue of murder in the second degree.

Defendant was convicted of second-degree murder at a prior trial on this same charge and that judgment was reversed and the case remanded for the trial court's failure to have given an instruction on manslaughter. State v. Taylor, Mo., 309 S.W.2d 621. The evidence adduced at the instant trial was essentially the same as that at the prior trial and there, as here, defendant's first assignment was that the trial court erred in submitting the issue of defendant's guilt of murder, asserting in support there and here that at best the evidence was sufficient only in justifying the submission of defendant's guilt of manslaughter.

The state's evidence tended to show that Fred Dotson owned a house about 1 1/2 miles south of Rolla and had invited Ralph Bailey, defendant Louis Taylor, and deceased William Burrus to stay with him and that both defendant and deceased had been staying there for at least two weeks prior to the occurrence in question. On the night of December 14, 1955, Dotson, Bailey, Taylor and Burrus had retired in the same room, two in a double bed, one in a single bed, and deceased on a mattress on the floor. Dotson said that defendant and deceased got into a fight which lasted for from one to two hours; that defendant knocked deceased down on the bed with a stick of wood which, by other testimony, was said to have been 18 to 20 inches long and 2 inches in diameter.

Raymond Heflin, who at the time lived close to the Dotson house, stopped there about six or seven in the morning of December 15, 1955. He said that Burrus was then lying on a mattress on the floor and that Taylor was cursing him and threatening to kill him; that defendant then went to Burrus and stomped on his face and throat, and later threw a stick of wood at him; that he (Heflin) asked Taylor to quit bothering Burrus, whereupon Taylor again stomped the deceased.

William Bone, who also lived near the Dotson house, testified that defendant Taylor was at his (Bone's) house on December 14, 1955, and at that time said that he was going on down to the Dotson house and that if Bill Burrus (the deceased) was there, 'hard to tellin' what might happen there.' Bone further said that about seven the next morning defendant came to borrow coffee and at that time said, 'You probably know what happened down there by the looks of me,' and that at that time Taylor had stains on his clothing and on his hands (the stains on his shirt, trousers, and right shoe were shown by other evidence to have been human bloodstains); that he returned later with Bailey, and Bone gave him some lighter fluid with which he unsuccessfully attempted to remove the stains; that defendant Taylor returned to Bone's house a fourth time when Dotson, Bone, and Mrs. Bone were present, and Taylor asked Dotson 'if he could go down there and go ahead and finish him off and get rid of him or not, and Mr. Dotson made the statement then to leave him alone, that 'you had done enough to him now.'' Troopers of the state highway patrol arrived at the Dotson home about noon on the 15th and at that time defendant told Bone that if he opened his mouth to the troopers he might get the same thing 'as happened down there.'

A grocer in Rolla testified that defendant Taylor had been in his store on December 15 and said, 'I killed Bill Burrus' and showed him a stain on his body or shirt; that he said he killed him "cause what he done to Fred Yesterday,' and that the day before Burrus had unsuccessfully tried to charge some groceries to Fred Dotson.

Deceased was taken to the hospital about 12:30 on December 15 and died a short time later. He had a cut under his left eye, severe bruises on the left side of his forehead near the hairline, his head was badly swollen, there was fluid under his scalp, he had numerous injuries to his head and face, and his nose was badly fractured. The cause of death was cerebral compression caused by a jolting of the brain due to trauma to the head.

We need not set forth defendant's testimony for, while he gave a different version from that supported by the state's evidence, in considering the sufficiency of the evidence to justify the submission or to support the conviction of second-degree murder, we accept as true the evidence favorable to the state and the favorable inferences reasonably to be drawn therefrom, and reject evidence contrary to and in conflict with such favorable evidence. State v. Harmon, Mo., 243 S.W.2d 326, 331.

As we have heretofore noted, the evidence adduced at the former trial was essentially the same as the instant evidence, and our reasons for holding that the trial court did not err in submitting the issue of defendant's guilt of second-degree murder at the second trial are the same as the reasons which were well stated in the prior opinion. It was there said,

'* * * we bear in mind that the existence or nonexistence of malice determines whether a homicide is murder in the second degree or manslaughter. State v. Ferguson, 353 Mo. 46, 182 S.W.2d 38; State v. Lawson, 360 Mo. 95, 227 S.W.2d 642. * * *

'Intentional homicide with malice aforethought could be reasonably inferred from the State's evidence introduced in the instant case, particularly the evidence tending to show defendant's conduct * * * in striking * * * deceased with a stick of wood * * * or the fist intermittently * * * and in 'stomping' him when he was lying prone on the mattress, * * *. We particularly note the evidence tending to show the statements of defendant indicating there was bad feeling on the part of defendant toward deceased and that defendant had [killed Burrus] because Burris apparently had attempted to procure groceries to be charged to Dotson's account. Testimony of statements made by defendant in the late afternoon of December 14th, before the fight, and in the morning of December 15th, after the occurrences of the preceding night, was indicatory that prior to the fight defendant entertained a preconceived malicious design to kill. Nor was it fatal to the substantiality of the State's case that the evidence did not definitely tend to show by what specific means defendant struck the fatal blow. A stick of wood * * * may be a deadly weapon when used to cause death, and it is not an essential element of murder in either degree that the killing be done with a deadly weapon, or any weapon at all; the crime may be committed with the fist. State v. Lawson, supra; State v. Rizor, 353 Mo. 368, 182 S.W.2d 525.' State v. Taylor, supra, 309 S.W.2d 623, 624. (Bracketed insert present writer's.)

We have reviewed Dotson's testimony in the light of defendant's contention that it was 'so contradictory, conflicting, evasive and indefinite in so many particulars that it is entirely incredible and unbelievable.' We are of the opinion, however, that while, as pointed out by defendant, certain interpretations of Dotson's testimony may have disclosed...