State v. Teale
| Citation | 142 N.W. 235,162 Iowa 451 |
| Parties | STATE OF IOWA, Appellee, v. HUGH TEALE, Appellant |
| Decision Date | 01 July 1913 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Iowa |
Appeal from Decatur District Court.--HON. H. K. EVANS, Judge.
THE defendant was jointly indicted with four others for the murder of Bertha Zornes on December 7, 1910. The other defendants indicted were Clarence Teale, Thomas Young, Ed Young, and Roy Young. Prior to the trial of this defendant Clarence Teale, had been convicted under such indictment of murder in the second degree, and Thomas Young of manslaughter, and such convictions were affirmed here. Ed Young entered a plea of assault with intent to commit great bodily injury. The indictment against Roy Young was dismissed. The defendant herein was found guilty of manslaughter, and he appeals.--Reversed and Remanded.
Reversed and Remanded.
C. W Hoffman and Marion Woodward, for appellant.
Hon George Cosson, Attorney General; Ed. H. Sharp, County Attorney; John S. Parrish, and Miles & Steele, for the State.
OPINION
I.
The defendant was convicted on the theory that he was present, aiding and abetting his codefendants, at the time of the killing of Mrs. Zornes. It is not claimed that he perpetrated any act which was directed against her, or which resulted in any injury to her in any other sense.
The Zornes family consisted of the husband and wife and three sons and a daughter. The husband is known in this record as Levi and the wife as Bertha and the three sons as Henry, Willie, and Elzie, aged respectively eighteen, sixteen and thirteen. The daughter Ora was absent, and does not figure in the case except by incidental reference. The family lived on a farm adjoining that of Clarence Teale, and occupied also a few acres of land rented from Clarence Teale. On the night of December 7, 1910, seven persons visited the Zornes home, including the indicted persons already named. Tom and Henry Phillips and Roy Young ate supper with the family. About 9 or 9:20 p. m. Clarence Teale, Tom Young, and Hugh Teale came. Twenty or thirty minutes later Ed Young came. Clarence Teale was a man between thirty-five and forty years of age. Hugh Teale was his younger brother, twenty-two years of age. Tom Young was twenty-five years of age, and was brother of Roy Young. Ed Young was a younger brother of Tom Young, and lived at home with his father. Tom Young and Hugh Teale had been engaged for some time prior to such evening in husking corn for Clarence Teale. It was not unusual for persons to gather at this home after night for reasons which were excluded from the evidence as immaterial. At the home this evening the men were all in the "southeast room" of the house. This room had a door exit at the east side, and another at its southwest corner opening into the "southwest room," which room had an outside door opening to the south. North of the southeast room was a bedroom. Mrs. Zornes was lying on one of the beds therein, the door between the two rooms being ajar. She was able thus to engage in conversation with the men in the other room. In the course of conversation an altercation of words arose between her and Clarence Teale. Thereupon her husband ordered the men out of the house. In the southwest corner of the room was a loaded shotgun. Levi Zornes, the husband, seized the shotgun. Tom Young knocked it out of his hands and knocked him down. A struggle ensued between Tom Young on the one hand and Levi and his son Henry on the other. Tom Young had a bicycle pump as a weapon. After using the bicycle pump first in his fight with Levi and Henry, he threw it at Mrs. Zornes, who in the meantime had left her bed and had come into the room. Ed Young got possession of the gun, either taking it away from Levi or picking it up from the floor after it had been struck from his hand by Tom. Ed Young immediately removed the shells from the gun and carried it away to the "cave" for the purpose of hiding it from the Zornes. Within a few moments after the fighting had begun all the persons in the room rushed out of doors, some through the east door and some through the south. On the outside the fighting was resumed as between the Zornes and Tom Young and Clarence Teale. Mrs. Zornes received a blow on the head from a board or stick in the hands of Tom Young and Clarence Teale, which fractured her skull, and from which death resulted the same night. Tom Young admitted and testified that he struck the blow with the board, but contended that he did so in self-defense. As already stated, he was found guilty of manslaughter. Levi and Henry Zornes and Tom Phillips testified that they saw Clarence Teale strike the blow, and he was found guilty of murder in the second degree. The question involved in this case is whether Hugh Teale was legally responsible to any degree for the death of Mrs. Zornes. We set forth herewith certain excerpts from the evidence for the state. If it can be said that the verdict is supported by sufficient evidence, such evidence must be found in the quoted excerpts.
Tom Phillips testified for the state as follows:
Tom threw the bicycle pump and hit Bertha Zornes. The shotgun was over behind the southwest door. I saw Tom Young leave this room; he followed Levi and Henry Zornes out. I went out after Tom Young; Ed Young and Roy Young went out. Clarence Teale, Mrs. Zornes, and the two boys and myself were in the room when Teale and I started out. I did not notice any blouse or vest on Teale. Clarence Teale came right out of the house behind me. When I got out Hugh Teale was standing there with some wood in one arm; a revolver or something in his hand shined bright. I wouldn't say whether it was a revolver or not. I went below the cave, and then west and then northeast. When I was at the northwest corner of the house I saw Clarence Teale and also saw Mrs. Zornes, Willie and Elza Zornes. I crossed the path in front of Mrs. Zornes and Elza. Clarence Teale had a board or a club, or something in his hand, after he left the side of the house. It was about three feet long. Mrs. Zornes was coming from the southeast when I first saw her. I saw Mrs. Zornes and the boys near the center of the house on the north side. Clarence Teale was on the west side of the house; he was at least twenty-five feet from them. Mrs. Zornes et al. was moving along. Clarence Teale was walking. Clarence Teale walked up behind Mrs. Zornes; she turned around and Clarence Teale knocked her down; she was sixty-three feet west from me as I estimated. The two Zornes boys--one of the boys was eighteen feet and the other fifteen feet west of me; that is my guess. Henry Zornes was forty feet from Levi. No one struck a lick in the house but Tom Young. Roy Young had a poker drawed up in both hands. I never swore at the March term of court, or the November term of court, that Roy Young had a poker down at his side and never raised it. I may have swore that when I stepped out of the door that neither Tom Young or Hugh Teale threw any clubs. I don't believe that I said Hugh Teale threw any clubs. I never saw Hugh Teale throw any clubs. Clarence Teale and I went out practically together. Mrs. Zornes and the boys were in the southeast room when we went into the kitchen. I made a pretty good run out northeast of the house. I was running when I passed the cave. I was running pretty rapidly. When I stepped out of the door Hugh Teale was standing with a load of wood in one arm, and something bright in the other hand. I swore on the trial before in the case of the state of Iowa against Clarence Teale that Tom Young and Clarence Teale was the only ones that I saw do anything out of doors. I believe that I swore that I believed Tom Young and Ed Young was the only ones that done any throwing. I believe that I swore that Tom Young and Clarence Teale was the only ones that I saw take any part in the fight out of doors. Tom Young and Clarence Teale was the only ones of the defendants near Lee or Henry Zornes at the time Mrs. Zornes was hit.
Levi Zornes testified:
When he come one of the Teale boys wanted to bet the other that he could drink more. After this I don't know whether Hugh said anything just then. Then there was some talk about a cook; Hugh made a bow and said something about the cook. Said he was all the cook there was down there. Clarence Teale accused my wife of saying they had Jane Young down there as a cook. I think Teale said he had heard that she was telling around that they had Jane Young down there for a cook. She said that was a mistake; she didn't say so. He used some bad talk. She said Dick Prey said it. I opened the east door and ordered the boys out. Tom Young said I couldn't put him out. He rapped me on the head with a bicycle pump. There wasn't no dents in the bicycle pump at the time. It was straight and in good condition. He struck me the second time. I fell kind of in the kitchen door. The first time he struck me I was standing in the southeast room, south of the stove. After I was knocked down the second time I tried to get the shotgun; before I got my hands on the gun Henry came out over me into the kitchen door. When we got up in the kitchen I think I was ahead of Henry. When we started out of the southwest room Tom Young was following us. After I got out of the southwest door I saw Hugh Teale. We tried to pick up some rocks. Hugh had an arm load of wood, and had his revolver, and said he would shoot our brains out if we picked up rocks. Hugh Teale was standing east and south of the door about eight feet. He had the wood in his left arm. Then we went off southwest. They were pushing us, and we didn't have any time to get any wood at the woodpile. They drove us then north of the woodpile about fifty or sixty feet near the barn and...
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