Williams v. State

• Decision Date: 16 November 1908
• Citation: 113 S.W. 799
• Parties: WILLIAMS v. STATE.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 799

113 S.W. 799

WILLIAMS v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

November 16, 1908.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Lonoke County; Eugene Lankford, Judge.

Sam Williams was convicted of assault with intent to rape, and appeals. Reversed, and remanded for a new trial.

Jas. B. Gray, for appellant. Wm. F. Kirby, Atty. Gen., and Daniel Taylor, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

HART, J.

At the August term, 1908, of the Lonoke circuit court, the grand jury returned an indictment in due form against Sam Williams, charging him with assault with intent to rape upon Beryl Shadle. He was tried and convicted at the same term of the court. His punishment was fixed at a term of three years in the state penitentiary, which he is now serving pending his appeal to this court.

Miss Beryl Shadle, the prosecuting witness, testified as follows: "I live at England, Lonoke county, Ark. On July 27, 1908, I was living on Plum bayou, some seven or eight miles southeast of England, and on that morning I started from my home at England to my school on Plum bayou, riding in a buggy alone. I started from England about 7 o'clock in the morning, and, when I had gotten about five miles from home, I was tackled by a negro. The negro's name is Sam Williams, and that is him there [pointing to the defendant]. Q. Go on, and tell all that occurred, whose house you were passing. A. I was passing the house where Mahomes live, and my attention was called by some one saying, `Wait,' and I looked around to the left to see, and a negro was just starting across the fence, had his right foot over the rail, and was fixing to put the other one over, and I thought he was talking to some one on the other side, and I looked across the road and saw he wasn't, and I looked again, and he was sliding off the fence inside the road. He said, `You look mighty sweet in that buggy, Honey,' and I realized then that he was talking to me, and I whipped the horse with the lines and I looked back at the negro, and he had crossed back over the fence, and he was running up the fence the way I was going. And I ran a good piece, and the buggy ran up against a stump, and threw me out and dragged me a piece, and I went to Mr. Hughes house, and called him. When the negro first called, he was 10 or 15 steps from me. When I last saw him, he was on the inside of the fence in the field about 15 or 20 steps from where I first saw him, running in the direction I was going." The remaining testimony was directed towards the...