Stokley v. State

• Decision Date: 07 December 1950
• Docket Number: 2 Div. 283
• Citation: 254 Ala. 534,49 So.2d 284
• Parties: STOKLEY v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Page 284

49 So.2d 284

254 Ala. 534

STOKLEY v. STATE.

2 Div. 283.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

Dec. 7, 1950.

Scott & Porter, of Chatom, and Rogers & Evans, of Butler, for appellant.

A. A. Carmichael, Atty. Gen., and Geo. W. Cameron, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

LAWSON, Justice.

The appellant, Clinton Stokley, was tried in the circuit court of Choctaw County under an indictment charging that he unlawfully and with malice aforethought killed Jesse M. Morgan, alias Sug Morgan, by striking him with a piece of scantling or a stick. The jury returned a verdict of murder in the first degree and fixed defendant's punishment at life imprisonment in the penitentiary. Judgment was in accord with the verdict. Defendant's motion for a new trial having been denied and overruled, he has appealed to this court.

The evidence for the State tended to show, among other things, as follows:

The deceased, Jesse Morgan; the defendant, Clinton Stokley; and the defendant's cousins, Horace Stokley, Alvin Stokley, and Pete Singley, all lived in or near a rural community known as Stokleytown, situate a short distance from the town of Silas, in Choctaw County. They had all been friends until a short time prior to the difficulty which resulted in the death of the deceased. A short time before the difficulty the deceased, Jesse Morgan, had told one Joe Stokley that he had seen defendant's dog 'on' one of Joe Stokley's cows. Joe Stokley killed defendant's dog. The State's evidence tends to show that defendant held a grudge against deceased because he had told Joe Stokley about his dog.

On a Saturday afternoon in May, 1949, the deceased went to Silas. The defendant and his three cousins went there also. While the defendant was in Silas, he inquired of his cousin, Alvin Stokley, whether he had seen deceased. Alvin replied in the negative. The deceased left Silas in the middle of the afternoon and returned to his home.

Later in the afternoon the defendant and his cousins, Horace Stokley, Alvin Stokley, and Pete Singley, were seen on the Stokleytown road a comparatively short distance from the home of deceased. They had some whisky with them. Clinton Stokley, the defendant, was heard to offer his cousin Alvin either $2.00 or $2.50 and a pint of whisky to go and get someone to leave his home and join them. The evidence supports the inference that Clinton had reference to the deceased. After this offer was made to him, Alvin Stokley drove off in his automobile, leaving Clinton and Horace behind. It appears that Clinton and Horace were in Clinton's automobile.

On their way home from Silas, some neighbors of the deceased, namely, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Morgan, with whom deceased's son J. C. was riding, saw the defendant and Horace Stokley and Pete Singley sitting on the side of the Stokleytown road, with the defendant's automobile nearby. Alvin Stokley was not present. The Morgans stopped and talked with defendant. Mr. Morgan had a drink with him. The defendant and his companions had at that time almost three pints of whisky. The defendant inquired as to the whereabouts of the deceased and said, 'I am going to whip that s-- of a b-- before the sun goes down or he is going to whip me one.'

After Alvin left Clinton and Horace, he contacted his nephew, Toby Taylor, a boy fifteen years of age, whom he sent to the home of deceased to find out if he was at home. Upon arriving there, Toby joined the members of the family of deceased and the family of Lige Gibson, a brother-in-law of deceased, on the back porch of deceased's home and ate some ice cream with them. After eating the ice cream, Toby left and reported to Alvin that the deceased was at home. Later Toby came back to the home of deceased and told him that Alvin wanted to see him out in his car. The deceased and Lige Gibson joined Alvin and Toby, who were in Alvin's automobile, which was parked in the road in front of deceased's home. Alvin and deceased talked about a fishing trip in the presence of Toby and Lige Gibson. Alvin then told deceased that he wanted to talk to him privately and the two of them went to a point approximately twenty-five feet behind the automobile, where they engaged in conversation. Upon coming back to the automobile, deceased said to Alvin as follows: 'I will not go up on the road and meet these boys, but I will talk with them anywhere I meet them or see them at the house.' The deceased and Lige Gibson then returned to deceased's home and joined their families on the back porch.

A short time after they had gotten back to the house, Clinton Stokley and his cousins, Horace Stokley and Pete Singley, came to the gate leading to the home of deceased and called to him to come down and talk with them. The defendant and Pete Singley had sticks in their hands. The deceased went to the front of his house and then began walking toward the gate, followed a short distance by his wife and brother-in-law, Lige Gibson. When deceased was a short distance from the gate, the defendant, Clinton Stokley, and Pete Singley began to curse the deceased and told him he had told a damn lie when he told Joe Stokley that it was defendant's dog which had been 'on' a cow belonging to Joe Stokley.

Deceased's wife, evidently apprehending trouble, caught hold of her husband, who weighed only 115 to 120 pounds, and when she did so defendant and Pete Singley jumped over the ditch and defendant hit deceased with a stick. The blow either knocked deceased out of the grasp of his wife or he eluded her. Thereupon the defendant and deceased engaged in a fight. They fell into a ditch, with defendant on top of deceased. While they were in the ditch, the wife of deceased secured a stick and she and the deceased's father, who had arrived at the scene and who was more or less an invalid, went to the assistance of the deceased. Mrs. Morgan received head injuries. A short time after the difficulty started, George Stokley, an uncle of defendant, who lived across the road from deceased and on whose property deceased was living, arrived at the scene and soon after his arrival the fighting in the ditch ceased. When the defendant got out of the ditch, he ran toward his car, which was parked in the road somewhere between the home of deceased and that occupied by Mr. George Stokley. Deceased ran after defendant, whereupon Pete Singley hit the deceased with a stick, knocking him into a fence and onto the ground. When Pete Singley hit the deceased, deceased was in the road approximately twenty to twenty-five yards from the place in the ditch where deceased and defendant had been fighting.

Horace Stokley took no active part in the encounter, but was standing on the outside of the gate with his hands in his pockets or under his shirt, and in a threatening way told Lige Gibson not to go to the defense of his brother-in-law. Alvin Stokley was sitting in his automobile, parked in the road a short distance away from the scene of the difficulty.

The deceased was able to walk to his home with the assistance of his brother-in-law. Shortly after getting there, he became paralyzed and unconscious and was taken to the hospital in Butler, where the attending physician recognized the seriousness of his condition and recommended that he be taken to a brain specialist in Birmingham. This was done. Deceased arrived at a hospital in Birmingham sometime the next afternoon. He was still paralyzed and unconscious. An operation was performed. He died before ever regaining consciousness. The cause of death was attributed to a severe blow on the head of the deceased.

The evidence for the defendant tended to show that on the afternoon of the difficulty he drove to Silas in his automobile, arriving there around two o'clock. At about three o'clock he met his cousin, Pete Singley, who had walked from his home in or near the Stokleytown community to Silas. While in Silas the defendant did not inquire of Alvin Stokley whether or not he had seen the deceased and, in fact, the defendant did not see Alvin Stokley in Silas. Later in the afternoon the defendant and Pete Singley left Silas enroute to the home of Ted Stokley, another cousin, who lived on the Stokleytown road beyond the point on the road where the deceased lived. After they had turned off the main highway onto the Stokleytown road, they picked up another cousin, Horace Stokley, who was walking. The three of them proceeded in the defendant's car in the direction of the home of Ted Stokley, whom they were to get to go to a dance with them, in accordance with arrangements previously made. They did not see Alvin Stokley on the Stokleytown road and the defendant did not offer Alvin Stokley any money or a pint of whisky to go and lure the deceased away from his home. They did not encounter Joe Morgan and his wife and J. C. Morgan, the son of deceased, and the defendant did not threaten the deceased as these people had testified on behalf of the State. As they were proceeding on the Stokleytown road, the battery cable on defendant's car became loose. The car was stopped at what is termed the forks of the road near the home of George Stokley, the uncle of the defendant. George Stokley lived almost across the road from deceased. Horace Stokley remained at George Stokley's home while the defendant and Pete Singley proceeded toward the home of Ted Stokley on foot. They did not call the deceased from his home, but when they got immediately in front of the home of deceased, deceased ran out of his house toward the gate, followed very closely by his thirteen-year-old daughter. A short distance behind was the deceased's wife and his brother-in-law, Lige Gibson. The deceased, when a few feet from his gate, which was almost on the road, told the defendant he had told some lies on him and deceased picked up a syrup bucket and threw it at defendant, hitting him on the left side of his face. Deceased opened the gate, whereupon deceased and defendant engaged in a fist fight and soon fell into a ditch...