Staton v. State

• Court: Georgia Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: HILL, J.
• Citation: Staton v. State, 174 Ga. 719, 163 S.E. 901 (Ga. 1932)
• Decision Date: 14 April 1932
• Docket Number: 8801.
• Parties: STATON v. STATE.

163 S.E. 901

174 Ga. 719

STATON v. STATE.

No. 8801.

Supreme Court of Georgia

April 14, 1932

Syllabusby the Court.

Evidence held sufficient to sustain murder conviction as against alibi defense.

Motions for new trial based on newly discovered evidence are addressed largely to trial judge's discretion.

Supreme Court will not reverse trial judge's decision refusing new trial for newly discovered evidence unless discretion is abused.

Refusing new murder trial for newly discovered evidence of alleged eyewitness to shooting that another than accused fired shot contradicted by counter affidavits, held not manifest abuse of trial judge's discretion.

In murder prosecution, where question of personal identity of accused and fact of alibi were virtually same defense court's omission to instruct separately on alibi held not error.

Where testimony for accused did not show impossibility of his presence at scene of homicide, failure to give specific charge, not requested, regarding alibi defense, held not error.

1. The evidence was sufficient to authorize the jury to find a verdict of guilty.

2. Motions for new trial based on newly discovered evidence are addressed largely to the discretion of the trial judge; and this court will not reverse his decision refusing a new trial on such ground, unless it is abused. The judge did not abuse his discretion in the instant case in refusing a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence.

3. Where the question of personal identity and the fact of alibi are virtually the same defense, the omission of the court to instruct separately on alibi is not error. The court did not err in failing to instruct the jury separately on the question of alibi, under the facts of the instant case.

4. The court did not err in refusing a new trial.

Error from Superior Court, Fulton County; John D. Humphries, Judge.

James F. Staton was convicted for murder, his motion for a new trial was overruled, and he brings error.

Affirmed.

Wm. G McRae, Parham & Simpson, Jas. C. Davis, and Walter E. Harclerode, all of Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.

John A. Boykin, Sol. Gen., J. W. Le Craw, and John H. Hudson, all of Atlanta, Geo. M. Napier, Atty. Gen., and T. R. Gress, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

HILL J.

James F. Staton was indicted and tried for the murder of Thomas J. Martin. He was found guilty, with a recommendation to mercy, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the penitentiary. He filed a motion for new trial, which was amended by the addition of two special grounds. The motion was overruled, and he excepted. The special grounds of the motion for new trial are (1) because of certain newly discovered evidence; and (2) because of the failure of the judge to charge the law with reference to the defense of alibi.

1. The evidence was sufficient to authorize the verdict. It tended to show that Staton was a United States soldier stationed at Ft. McPherson in Fulton county, and that on May 20, 1931, between 11:00 and 12:00 o'clock p. m., he shot and killed another soldier named Thomas J. Martin, at or near the corner of Lee and Mickleberry streets, near Ft. McPherson. The evidence showed that Martin was walking along the street with a young woman named Georgia Phillips, with whom he had attended a dance at the service club at Ft. McPherson. Miss Phillips testified that she and Martin "watched them dance" for awhile, and then together walked down Lee street; that Staton, walked by them in company with a companion two or three times, and then came up to where they were and pointed a pistol at Private Martin. Martin replied, "You are not going to shoot me, are you?" "Mr. Martin and I were between the second and third car-stop down from Ft. McPherson gate when one of them shot him. At the time of the shooting Mr. Staton said to Mr. Martin: 'Hands up.' I didn't know his name at that time. When this man says 'hands up,' Mr. Martin says: 'You are not going to shoot me are you?' And he says 'hands up' again, and shot him. This other soldier that was with Staton when Staton shot him was standing right by his side; this other soldier didn't say anything. The one who shot him was the one that had the broken arm and the bandaged one. The one that did the shooting that night is sitting right over there at that table. It is Mr. Staton. After he shot Martin, Staton turned to me and says, 'Now, you put your hands up,' and I ran, and he shot at me but didn't hit me. This man shot at Mr. Martin two times, and shot at me once. When I broke and ran away and he shot at me, both of them ran away from there towards East Point. When those two men ran away from there, I went out there in the street and stopped an automobile. Those people in the automobile didn't get out and go over to where Mr. Martin was lying on the sidewalk; they came up there and waited a few minutes and then came back up there and parked the car right in front of where they was, and they were out there looking at him, and Mr. West came up there and wanted to know what was the matter, and they told him, and he wanted to carry me to jail and called the ambulance; so he put me in the car and carried me down and turned me over to policeman Couch, and I was later carried to the police station here in Atlanta that night. That night they brought Staton and some more soldiers up there, and I identified him out of the crowd." "Q. Did you tell this man West or Short or Collins what happened there? A. Yes, sir."

R. W. Johnson, for the state, testified: "In May of this year I was soldiering out at Ft. McPherson, in the service company. The service company takes care of the transportation, preparation of meals, things like that. I knew James F. Staton. I have known him probably twelve years. I knew him since he has been in the service and at Rome, Georgia. I am 26 years old. I don't know exactly how old Staton is. I have been in the service eight years and two months, I knew him before I entered the service at Rome, Georgia. I lived neighbor to him up near Rome before I joined the army. I knew his mother and his kinfolks. Staton and I were friends and neighbors before I came to the army, and we have been friends since that time. I saw Staton that night that Private Martin was killed between 11 o'clock and midnight; he came to my room after 11 o'clock, and evidently had been drinking. I got close enough to him to talk to him. I could smell his breath and smelled whiskey on him; he came in my room that night and told me that he had killed a man, and I stood there and talked to him a little bit, and he started out. He had a gun with him, and I was intending to get it, and he objected and went on out. I merely asked him to let me have the gun, I didn't try to take it; he just objected. He said: 'No.' He stayed in my room there a very short time. Lightfoot was there in the room with me; we just room together. I could not tell anything about the size and caliber of the pistol. Staton did not tell me where he had killed a man or who the man was. At that time I did not know that Private Martin had been shot. I found out next morning that Private Martin had been killed out there on Lee Street near the Fort. I have told the meaning of everything he said, whether it is the exact words or not I don't know; there is no reason why I should want to state his exact words to the court and jury."

F. F. Lightfoot, for the state, testified: "About the 20th of May of this year I was in the service company at Ft. McPherson. I have been in the army a little over three years. I know James S. Staton. I have known him about a year, I guess; something like that. This year in May he was stationed in the service at Ft. McPherson. R. W. Johnson was my roommate on the 2Oth of May, the man who just left the witness stand here. I saw Mr. Staton when I was out there at the Fort, the night Mr. Martin was killed, and it was between 11 o'clock and midnight he came to my quarters. When he came in the room he says: 'Hook, Hook,' he says: 'get up, get up.' Hook is my roommate, Johnson, that's Johnson's nickname. When he says, 'Hook, Hook, get up; I am messed up and messed up plenty,' words to that effect. Hook then says, 'What's the matter,' and he says, 'I have killed a man'; and Johnson says, 'Oh, bull,' or something like that. When that conversation was going on we were still in bed, both of us. When Hook says, 'Oh bull,' Staton said, 'Sure enough, I have,' and so Hook got up and tried to take his gun away from him. He would not give him the gun, and he tried to put him to bed. Staton had the gun, and he walked out the door. He says, 'I am going to kill myself or go over the hill, one.' The expression, 'go over the hill,' in army life is to leave without permission. I didn't see Staton any more that night. I didn't know at that time that Private Martin had been killed. I learned about the death of Private Martin the next morning. Staton said something about he had two or three more. I don't remember exactly now what he says, but something to that effect."

Private E. H. Chastain, for the state, testified: "I was connected with Ft. McPherson in May of this year; in the capacity of kitchen police. I know where the quarters of Johnson and Lightfoot were located about May 20th or May 21. I remember when Private Martin was killed. I did not go anywhere near the quarters of Johnson and Lightfoot at that time. I was on kitchen police on Thursday after the killing and that is as close as I went to the quarters where they stayed. Private Martin was killed on Wednesday night. I discovered some shells about ten steps from the quarters of Johnson and Lightfoot. I found the shells about three steps from the kitchen door, right in front, between the door of the kitchen and their door where they sl...