Watts v. State, 37739
| Decision Date | 11 December 1950 |
| Docket Number | No. 37739,37739 |
| Citation | 210 Miss. 236,49 So.2d 240 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | WATTS v. STATE. |
North & North, Belzoni, for appellant.
J. P. Coleman, Atty. Gen., Geo. H. Ethridge, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
George Watts, alias Buddy Hanes, was indicted for the murder of Herman Lang. The jury found him guilty of manslaughter, with a recommendation of leniency, and he was sentenced to serve a term of ten years in the state penitentiary. From the judgment and sentence, he appeals here.
The shooting occurred on Easter Sunday morning, April 17, 1949. A number of Negroes had been at a night club. Watts and another invited a woman, who was present, to ride in their car, but she chose to leave in Lang's car. Lang and his companions drove down the road, and Watts, driving his car, with his companions, followed. A third loaded car also proceeded behind the other two. The Watts car bumped the Lang car several times in the course of two or three miles. According to the State's evidence, when Lang turned off of the road, he stopped. Watts drove up by the side, got out, went to Lang, applied an epithet to him, struck him with a pistol and pulled him out of the car. As Lang was trying to get up, Watts shot him in the back. Thereupon, another Negro, in the Lang car, shot at Watts and wounded him several times, but without serious results. One witness testified positively to the above facts, and in most particulars, was corroborated by two others.
Watts denied the State's version. On the contrary, he contended that he did not shoot Lang. However, he admitted that he accosted Lang just as the State's witnesses testified, but claimed that he did so because Lang waved to him. It was his contention also that he struck Lang with a whiskey bottle rather than a pistol, and that he did so because Lang was endeavoring to draw a weapon. Appellant's son was in the party, and he and another witness gave corroboration to appellant's version.
With this sharp conflict in the evidence, of course, the issue of guilt or innocence was properly submitted to the jury.
But, appellant contends that the State did not prove the corpus delicti in that it was not shown that Lang's death resulted from the shot.
No medical evidence was offered by the State. It was shown that Lang was in good health. He was shot in the back, and could not get up. He was carried to a hospital in Jackson for medical attention, and remained there for some time. Later he was carried to the home of his parents, and thereafter to his own home. Several witnesses visited him often. He was never able to get up, and complained of pain in his back. He lived forty-eight...
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Jackson v. State
...consists of the fact of death and the fact of the cause of death, and both such elements may be proved by circumstances. Watts v. State, 210 Miss. 236, 49 So.2d 240. Although the corpus delicti cannot be proved alone by the accused's confession, his criminal agency may be shown by his own c......
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Gilmore v. State
...case, consists of (1) the fact of death, and (2) the fact of the existence of criminal agency as the cause of death. Watts v. State, 210 Miss. 236, 49 So.2d 240; Brooks v. State, 178 Miss. 575, 173 So. 409; Perkins v. State, 160 Miss. 720, 135 So. 357; Pitts v. State, 43 Miss. 472. 'Both of......
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...reject the other. Ivey v. State, 206 Miss. 734, 40 So.2d 609; Woodward v. State, 180 Miss. 571, 177 So. 531, 178 So. 469; Watts v. State, 210 Miss. 236, 49 So.2d 240. In the recent case of Buford v. State, Miss., 69 So.2d 826, where the confession had shown that the killing was effected wit......
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