State v. Williams, 44701

• Decision Date: 11 March 1968
• Docket Number: No. 44701,44701
• Parties: STATE of Mississippi v. J. L. WILLIAMS.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 172

208 So.2d 172

STATE of Mississippi v. J. L. WILLIAMS.

No. 44701.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 11, 1968.

Joe T. Patterson, Atty. Gen., by G. Garland Lyell, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellant.

John L. Dale, Lucedale, for appellee.

BRADY, Justice:

This case has several unique features which are not commonly found in criminal cases. Therefore, it is essential that we review the various pleadings and orders which were taken herein in the circuit court. Subsequent to appellee's arrest for public drunkenness on July 6, 1966, he was indicted on August 22, 1966, by the grand jury of George County for the armed robbery of R. L. Ward of $2,000 on December 26, 1947.

On August 23, 1966, a severance was granted appellee and appellee pled not guilty to the indictment of armed robbery. Also on August 23, 1966, on motion of Honorable Kenneth B. Robertson, who was serving as Public Defender of the 19th Judicial District, an order was entered transmitting appellee to the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield to determine if appellee was physically and mentally competent to assist his attorney and to stand trial.

On December 12, 1966, Honorable J. L. Dale was appointed to represent appellee. On December 14, 1966, motion was made for order admitting appellee to bail and order for bail bond in the sum of $2,500 was granted. On February 6, 1967, motion was made by appellee's attorney, J. L. Dale, to suppress the purported confessions. An order was entered on February 27 suppressing statements made, written or oral, by appellee on July 6, 1966. On February 27, 1967, the cause was continued until the May term of court and appellee was allowed bail in the sum of $2,500. However, in vacation, on Friday, February 24, 1967, a hearing was held on appellee's motion to suppress the purported confessions. It was agreed that the appellee's defense of insanity would not be urged on the motion.

On March 8, 1967, one of the days of the regular February 1967 term of court, it was stipulated that the entire proceedings which were heard on February 24, 1967, at a preliminary hearing, be made a part of the record. It was further stipulated that Robert L. Ward was killed on the date set out in the record and in the indictment; that it was termed homicide and was unsolved; and that it was ruled at that time that Robert L. Ward was robbed and that this defendant was ultimately indicted by the grand jury of George County, Mississippi, on the charge of armed robbery; that he was arraigned on said charge and entered a plea of not guilty and 'has come on this day for trial.' It was also stipulated that the corpus delicti was proven. A hearing on appellee's motion to suppress the confession was held and sustained. The defendant-appellee moved the court to direct a verdict of not guilty for the defendant, which was sustained.

The court directed the jury to find a verdict of not guilty for the defendant. Final judgment was entered on jury verdict of not guilty on March 10, 1967.

Reviewing the record on appellee's motion to suppress the purported confession, we find that appellee's first witness was Mr. John Autry, who operates a cafe in Columbia. He testified that appellee was in his cafe on July 6, 1966, in an intoxicated condition and that he asked him to leave.

The record discloses these additional relevant facts. On July 6, 1966, at approximately eleven o'clock, two city policemen of Columbia, Mississippi, James Sartin and Hoyt G. Ashley, arrested appellee for public drunkenness as he was leaving the Yellow Cab stand of Edmond Breeden. Mr. Breeden, whom appellee had known almost all his life, testified that appellee was so drunk he did not recognize him, but called him by another name. Mr. Breeden also testified that appellee was so intoxicated he could not have known whether it was night or day. The city policemen testified that at the time appellee was arrested he was not capable of making an intelligent statement.

Mr. Homer Sibley, deputy sheriff and jailer, testified he saw appellee that day about twelve-thirty. He stated that the appellee at that time was in an extreme state of intoxication. Mr. Sibley further testified that Judge Sebe Dale talked with the appellee between two and three o'clock that afternoon. Judge Dale had gone into the jail to try to persuade a minor, who had escaped from Columbia Training School, to voluntarily return rather than remain in the county jail until the next term of court.

The record discloses that when the appellee learned that Judge Dale was in the jail he began screaming and 'hollering' for the judge to come to talk to him. Two inmates of his cell, Jimmy Carter and Danny Metsieger, testified that the appellee was drunk, crying and 'hollering' when placed in the cell and did not know what he was doing. Metsieger testified that appellee was drunk and went berserk, and that when the district attorney came to see appellee about ten o'clock that night he was still drunk.

The record clearly establishes that the appellee stated to Judge Dale that he wanted to tell him about a man he had killed. Judge Dale and the appellee had known each other for a long time. It is also evident from the record that Mrs. Homer Sibley, wife of the jailer, who resides in the jail, telephoned Mrs. Mary Jane Jones, appellee's sister, and notified her 'that they were drilling her brother, and he was in no condition to be drilled-that they were drilling him about a murder had happened nineteen years ago-the boy needs somebody to defend him or something because he's not at himself.' Mrs. Jones came to the jail around five o'clock and found that the appellee was drunk and did not realize who she was and would not talk to her. She testified that for the past fifteen years she had never 'knowed him being sober.'

J. L. Williams, appellee, testified that he had been drinking 'bootleg whiskey' since he was twelve years old; that he was then thirty-seven years of age; that on the day he was arrested he had been drunk for two or three weeks; that he had been arrested a hundred or a hundred and fifty times for being drunk. He stated he did not know if he had talked to Judge Dale on July 6, 1966, when he was in jail; that he made no willful or intelligent waiver of his constitutional rights; that he did not willfully and knowingly waive his constitutional rights to the presence and assistance of a lawyer, or waive his rights to remain silent.

The record discloses that out of the hearing of his cellmates he confessed voluntarily to Judge Dale his participation in the armed robbery of one Mr. Ward who resided near Lucedale in George County. He told Judge Dale that he shot Mr. Ward with a 22-rifle and subsequently placed him under the seat of Mr. Ward's truck; that he drove the truck from Mr. Ward's home and left it abandoned on a local road, where it was ultimately found.

Just as the 'horrible shadow' plagued Macbeth, so does the appellee have a Nemesis. Judge Dale testified that the appellee told him he was telling him this because 'I just can't get away from that fellow. * * * That bugger has been running me ever since that killing. * * * He gets in the bed with me, gets in the truck with me, gets on my shoulder, that's why I stay drunk trying to get away from him.' Judge Dale in substance testified that in his opinion the appellee was not intoxicated but that he looked as though he had been on a drunk.

The record discloses that Judge Dale called his brother, Mr. C. H. Dale, who lives in Lucedale, and ascertained that a Mr. Ward had been killed. The record further establishes that Judge Dale then tried to call Circuit Judge Darwin Maples, but could not contact him. He then talked to the district attorney of the 19th District, Mr. Donald W. Cumbest, who asked for Mr. Dantin's name and telephone number, which Judge Dale furnished him.

Mr. Maurice Dantin, district attorney of the 15th Circuit Court District, who resides in Columbia, testified that Mr. Cumbest called him about 9:30 P.M. on July 6, 1966. He talked to Judge Dale first and then to the sheriff, John Homer Willoughby, and...