State v. Watts
| Decision Date | 06 August 1930 |
| Docket Number | 2899. |
| Citation | 290 P. 732,52 Nev. 453 |
| Parties | STATE v. WATTS. |
| Court | Nevada Supreme Court |
Appeal from District Court, Humboldt County; L. O. Hawkins, Judge.
Rosa Watts was convicted of murder in the first degree, and she appeals.
Affirmed.
J. W Dignan, of Winnemucca, for appellant.
M. A Diskin, of Reno, Wm. J. Forman, of Carson City, and Merwyn H Brown, of Winnemucca, for the State.
In September, 1929, Rosa Watts was charged in an information filed in the court below with shooting and killing Rollin Watts, nicknamed "Doc Watts," her husband, in Winnemucca, Humboldt county, Nev., on the 18th day of June 1929. Although the proof shows the accused to have been an accessory to the homicide, she was informed against as a principal because the distinction between principal and accessory is abrogated by statute. Section 7071, Revised Laws.
After an extended trial, the jury returned this verdict:
"We, the jury in the above-entitled cause, do find the defendant, Rosa Watts, guilty of murder in the first degree, and do hereby fix the penalty at life imprisonment."
Thereafter, the accused filed her notice of intention to move for a new trial. Subsequently, the motion was denied and overruled. Thereupon, judgment was pronounced upon the verdict and the accused was sentenced to confinement in state prison for life. Thereafter, the accused perfected her appeal to this court from the judgment and from the order denying and overruling her motion for new trial.
The first and principal ground alleged for the reversal of the order denying the motion for new trial is the insufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict.
The record is voluminous and to set out, or even attempt to review, the testimony of the numerous witnesses in detail, would extend this opinion to an unreasonable length. Therefore, a summary of the facts and circumstances attendant upon and surrounding the alleged homicide stated in narrative form must suffice.
The record discloses that Rosa Watts and Glenn A. Trousdale intermarried in the year 1914. Their marital domicile for the greater part of their married life was in Winnemucca, Humboldt county, Nev., where they purchased a home situate on the corner of West First street and Aiken street. In the rear of the residence were six cabins owned and rented by them.
On May 4, 1929, Rosa Trousdale was divorced from her husband. At the time of the divorce the spouses entered into a property settlement, whereby the husband was to receive certain personal property and the wife a deed to their real estate upon the payment to the husband of $2,500, payable in monthly installments of $60 per month. The contract and deed to the property was placed in escrow in the First National Bank in Winnemucca. A few days thereafter the divorced husband and wife, together with Rollin Watts, went to the First National Bank, and Rollin Watts then and there paid Glenn A. Trousdale the sum of $2,500, in full of the property contract settlement, and Rosa Trousdale received the deed then in escrow and had it placed upon record.
On the 11th day of May, 1929, Rosa Trousdale intermarried with Rollin Watts.
On the morning of June 18, 1929, at or about 3:30 o'clock a. m., Rollin Watts was found on the front porch of his residence in a bed occupied by him and his wife with a bullet hole in the top of his head, practically on the middle line of the skull and in line with a line drawn from ear to ear. He was removed to the County Hospital in Winnemucca, where he died on the 14th of August, 1929, from the effects of the wound received on June 18, 1929.
Caledonia Swezy, a witness for the state, testified that on the night of June 18, 1929, she was awakened by loud and angry voices, men's voices and a woman's voice; that she heard a pleading voice say, "Let go," or, "Let me go"; that she heard a shot and a groan or moan; that she heard a woman say, "Why did you do it" several times, and also exclaim, "Oh, Doc!" The witness testified that after hearing the shot she saw Rosa Watts come out of the back door of the Watts residence and stand as if hesitating in the back yard and then turn as if going back into the house, and then come out of the back on First street and go across the street to the Swezy residence and call Dr. Swezy for aid.
Dr. Swezy, a witness for the state, testified that when he arrived at the Watts residence he found Rollin Watts lying on the bed on the front porch; that Rosa Watts at the time said to him that Rollin had attempted to commit suicide. He further testified that when he came upon the porch Rosa Watts went over to the bed and said: The witness testified that he found a 38-caliber Iver Johnson pistol lying beside the bed near the head of the bed.
Frank Diehl, a witness for the state, testified that he lived in the Bergwin cabin in the rear of the Watts residence; that on the morning of the 18th of June he heard what sounded to him to be two men and a woman in an argument and that within a short time he heard a shot and then heard a woman say, "Oh, my God, why did you do that"; and that within a short time he heard a noise as if some one was crawling over a fence or shed in the rear of the Watts residence.
E. L. Bogart, a witness for the state, testified that he was sleeping in cabin No. 5 in the rear of the Watts residence on the morning of the 18th, and that he was awakened by a noise, and that within a short time he saw Rosa Watts cross the street from the rear gate to the Swezy residence, and that a few minutes before seeing Rosa Watts crossing First street he heard a scraping noise like some one drawing themselves up over a shed or fence in the rear of the Watts residence about twenty feet from where he was sleeping, which sounded to him as if some one was crawling over the back coal shed.
Mrs. Laura Campbell, a witness for the state, testified that on the morning of June 18th, about 3:25 a. m., she heard some one close the door of the residence of Mrs. Ella Trousdale, the mother of Glenn A. Trousdale, where the latter was living at the time, and that she heard the front screen door slam and some one walk to the front gate and some one walk down in front of her house, which was in the direction of the Watts residence.
In the forenoon of June 18th, Erling Prout, deputy sheriff, visited the Watts residence to make an investigation of the shooting, where he was met by Rosa Watts, who, in response to questions put to her by the witness Prout, stated that Doc had shot himself, meaning the deceased, and upon further inquiry she produced the gun from a dresser drawer and gave it to the witness. The gun contained four loaded shells and one empty shell. She stated to the witness that Doc took the gun to bed with him; that there was some one prowling around the night before and Doc said he was going to take the gun to bed to protect him. On another occasion at the Watts residence Rosa Watts stated to the witness Prout that Doc was out riding in the afternoon, and in the evening that they both went riding after supper and got back about half past 8; that Doc went to bed somewhere around 9 o'clock and she a little while afterwards; that they talked a bit and that she went to sleep and she never woke up until the shot woke her up in the morning. She stated that when the shot woke her up she jumped out of bed, looked around, saw the blood on Doc; and that she ran to the telephone and could not get any answer, and then went out the front door and beat it across the street to get Dr. Swezy. She said she got the doctor and the doctor came over, and afterwards Mr. Spinner and Mrs. Spinner and Mrs. Swezy came over, and that Doc was taken to the hospital.
On cross-examination the witness Prout stated that he visited Rollin Watts at the hospital on the 19th and went there very nearly every day to see him. The first conversation the witness had with the deceased was on the 20th. On the 20th the witness visited Watts in response to a message delivered over the 'phone by the nurse that Watts wanted to talk to him. The conversation between them was substantially as follows:
This conversation was transcribed by the district attorney and was admitted in evidence on the request of counsel for the defendant.
About the hour of 7 o'clock on the evening of the 20th, District Attorney Brown, Dr. Swezy, and the witness Prout visited Watts. The witness Prout testified that on this visit he wrote out some questions and asked them to Doc, to which questions Doc wrote his answers. The questions and answers were as follows:
The witness testified that Watts was quite weak and when he made an attempt to answer the last question he laid the pencil down. The paper which contained the questions and answers was admitted in evidence...
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