Townsell v. State
| Decision Date | 26 April 1951 |
| Docket Number | 4 Div. 644 |
| Citation | 52 So.2d 186,255 Ala. 495 |
| Parties | TOWNSELL v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
John J. Martin, of Dothan, for appellant.
Si Garrett, Atty. Gen., and Thos. F. Parker, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
The appellant John J. Townsell was indicted for murder in the first degree. He was tried on his pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. The jury returned a verdict of murder in the first degree and fixed the punishment at death. This appeal comes here under the automatic appeal statute.
The killing took place in the Townsell home which was on the Headland Road in Houston County. Shirley Mae Allday, the fourteen year old daughter of Dovie Lee Townsell, the deceased, testified in substance that she was awakened between 4:00 to 4:30 or 5:00 o'clock in the morning and heard her mother and stepfather fussing in the next room where they had been sleeping. He was fussing at her because she wouldn't get up and fix his breakfast and she said she would get up and leave him and he said she wouldn't. The witness had been sleeping in one bed in her room with her two younger sisters, the other bed in the room where she was sleeping being occupied by three little boys. The door between the room in which the children were sleeping and the room in which appellant and his wife were sleeping was open. The bed on which the witness was lying looked directly into the open doorway into the adjoining bedroom. She saw her mother approach the open doorway and the next thing there was a shot, her mother came a little further and there was another shot and her mother fell between the two beds in the room in which the witness was sleeping. She didn't see who fired the first shot but saw her stepfather fire the second shot. Both shots hit her mother in the head.
Immediately after her mother fell John Townsell came between the beds and started to beat the witness while she was still in the bed. She was beaten with the gun with the result that the gun broke in two. The witness jumped over her mother who was lying on the floor and went out of the house through the kitchen door. She saw the appellant come into the kitchen and reload the gun. He got in front of the oil stove and put it up to his chin and shot himself.
The testimony of Shirley Mae Allday was substantially corroborated by Fannie Lou Holland who was sleeping in the bed with her. Fannie Lou Holland was nine years old and was a daughter of the deceased.
When Ed Cherry, a policeman of the City of Dothan, accompanied by one Roney, another policeman, were on their way to the Townsell home after the killing they first found the appellant in a yard off the highway. His chin was shot off and they got an ambulance to pick him up. He could not talk and so motioned for a pencil and wrote for the policeman to notify one John C. Powell. When they reached the Townsell home they found Shirley Mae Allday on the front porch with her arm broken. She testified to other bruises and cuts which she received. In the bedroom where the children slept they found the body of the deceased lying on the floor. She had been shot on both sides of her face and head apparently with a shot gun. They sent Shirley Mae Allday to the hospital in an ambulance.
Fred Johnson, owner and operator of a funeral home, came to the Townsell Home shortly after the shooting. In the bedroom where the children slept in addition to the body on the floor he found the stock of a gun and two empty shells. The barrel of the gun was found in the kitchen.
Albert Smith, witness for the state, testified that the defendant told him several weeks previous to the killing that he had drawn his gun to shoot her and that he wanted to 'get shed' of her.
The defendant testified in his own behalf, stating that on the morning of the killing his wife was despondent and seized the gun in order to kill herself, that while he was attempting to take the gun away from her it discharged both barrels, resulting in her death. That he then went into the kitchen where he was attacked by Shirley Mae Allday with the shotgun and that in attempting to wrest the gun from her the stock was broken, the child injured and he was shot himself. He also claimed that the deceased had previously attempted to commit suicide.
After the defendant's arrest, on order of the court he was sent to Bryce's Hospital at Tuscaloosa for observation, where the commission found him sane both at the time of their observation and at the time of the killing.
Dr. W. T. Burkett treated the defendant while he was confined in jail for the septic condition brought about by the wound to his chin. According to him the defendant had no disease of the mind but at one period was mentally confused from the fever arising from the septic condition. Numerous lay witnesses, including the employer of defendant, his neighbors and acquaintances all testified to the defendant's sanity.
The defendant testified in a coherent manner on the stand and admitted that he was sane and knew what he was doing up until the time shortly before the officers found him in the road and sent him to the hospital. The gun with which the deceased was killed hung on some nails driven in the wall above the bed where the appellant and the deceased were sleeping.
I. It is contended that there was no evidence as to premeditation. There is no merit in this position. Shirley Mae Allday testified that the defendant had threatened her mother before the killing, had told her that he would kill her and had said that he wished she would die. Albert Smith testified that about four to six weeks prior to the killing the defendant told him that he had drawn a gun on his wife to shoot her and wanted to 'get shed' of her. Testimony of the state tended to show that the defendant got the gun from the rack above the bed and then shot the deceased not only once but the second time. There was ample proof from which the jury could infer premeditation. Daughdrill v. State, 113 Ala. 7, 21 So. 378; Caldwell v. State, 203 Ala. 412, 84 So. 272; White v. State, 236 Ala. 124, 181 So. 109.
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Grayson v. State
...and appellate courts will not interfere therewith unless it appears that there has been an abuse of discretion.' Townsell v. State, 255 Ala. 495, 498, 52 So.2d 186, 189 (1951)." Houston v. State, 565 So.2d 277, 279 (Ala. Cr.App.1990). See also Tombrello v. State, 421 So.2d 1319, 1322 (Ala.C......
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...and appellate courts will not interfere therewith unless it appears that there has been an abuse of discretion." Townsell v. State, 255 Ala. 495, 498, 52 So.2d 186, 189 (1951).' Houston v. State, 565 So.2d 277, 279 (Ala.Cr.App.1990). See also Tombrello v. State, 421 So.2d 1319, 1322 (Ala.Cr......
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...courts will not interfere therewith unless it clearly appears that there has been an abuse of discretion." Townsell v. State, 255 Ala. 495, 498, 52 So.2d 186, 189 (1951). "Obviously, the examination of witnesses, on all trials, is for the purpose of eliciting the truth. They are sworn to sp......
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...error cannot be taken advantage of on appeal because there was no objection of any type to the prosecutor's remarks. Townsell v. State, 255 Ala. 495, 52 So.2d 186 (1951); Lee v. State, 265 Ala. 623, 93 So.2d 757 (1957); Jackson v. State, 260 Ala. 641, 71 So.2d 825 The appellant alleges that......