State v. Thompson

Decision Date20 November 1912
Citation76 S.E. 249,161 N.C. 238
PartiesSTATE v. THOMPSON.
CourtNorth Carolina Supreme Court

Appeal from Superior Court, Union County; Whedbee, Judge.

Sam Thompson was convicted of murder in the first degree, and he appeals. Affirmed.

The statement of a witness that accused charged with murder did not want to go to the place of the commission of the offense was admissible as a statement of accused's conduct and appearance.

Redwine & Sikes, of Monroe, for appellant.

The Attorney General, for the State.

CLARK C.J.

The prisoner was convicted of murder in the first degree of one Gus Alsobrooks. The deceased was shot on the night of March 8, 1912, while asleep in a chair a few feet from a window by some one standing outside. Quentin, son of deceased testified that he was sleeping in the bed in the same room that the dogs began barking outside, that he got up, went to his father, and tried to wake him; that while he was standing behind the chair the gun was fired by some one outside. He said that the shot struck the deceased in his eyes and also hit the witness. Another son testified that he was in bed when his father was shot, and when he got up he found Quentin lying on the floor. There was also evidence that preceding the killing there had been bad feeling between the deceased and the prisoner, and quarrels and fights between their children; that shortly before, as the deceased was passing the house of the prisoner, he was shot at from ambush by some one. The deceased took out a warrant against the son of the prisoner for such shooting, and the prisoner threatened the deceased that if he did not withdraw the warrant he would not be living when it came to trial.

There was evidence that it had been raining the night of the murder; that tracks were found 3 1/2 or 4 feet from the window; and several persons testified to following the tracks in a roundabout direction to within 50 feet of the prisoner's home, and that the shoes worn by him fitted in the tracks. There was a hard path leading to the house from the place where the print of the tracks ceased. Other tracks a little distance from the prisoner's house which he admitted to be his looked like the same tracks which had been followed by the witnesses. It was also in evidence that at one place it appeared as if the person making the tracks had fallen, and there was a print of his knee on the ground. The prisoner admitted that he had worn overalls that day, and when the house was searched overalls were found with dried mud on the knee. A shell was found close to the tracks which the witnesses had followed to the prisoner's house at about 200 or 300 yards from the house of the deceased.

Clifford Fowler, witness for the state, testified in regard to the tracks found outside the window and to following them to the house of the prisoner. He stated that, when the coroner's jury was at the house of the deceased, the prisoner went to the house with his gun and was put in the tracks, and that the prisoner was of sufficient height to have fired the gun. He was then asked, "Tell how the prisoner acted in taking these measurements," to which witness answered "I like not to have got him up there. He didn't want to go there at all. Q. What did he do? A. Some one handed me a gun. I took him around to the window and handed him the gun. I said, 'Sam, get up there; I want to see if you are high enough to do the shooting.' I said, 'You must take the gun?' He did; and stepped up and put the gun over his shoulder. I said, 'Put it to the shoulder just like you were going to shoot it.' He fetched the gun up and did like this [witness crouches down]. He put his feet within 3 or 4 inches of the track. I said, 'Measure it and put your gun up there.' The gun looked like it might have been that distance, about 7 inches from the window. Q. State to the jury, after he put it on his shoulder and pointed, if you got behind and sighted to see where it sighted with reference to where deceased was sitting. A. It was on a line; and the shot was on the line."

To the foregoing questions and answers the prisoner entered two objections and excepted. The objections here taken present the question whether the prisoner has been...

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1 books & journal articles
  • Self-incrimination - what can an accused person be compelled to do?
    • United States
    • Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Vol. 89 No. 4, June 1999
    • June 22, 1999
    ...purpose. Indeed, it was fairer to him to present him amid the surroundings where the occurrence took place." Also see State v. Thompson, 161 N. C. 238, 76 S. E. 249 (1912); Thomas v. State, 19 Ala. 187, 96 So. 182, 184 (1923). In People v. Fisher, et al., 340 Ill. 216, 172 N. E. 743 (1930),......

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