Williams v. State

• Decision Date: 07 June 1971
• Docket Number: No. 5556,5556
• Citation: 250 Ark. 859,467 S.W.2d 740
• Parties: Richard Neal WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. The STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 740

467 S.W.2d 740

250 Ark. 859

Richard Neal WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. The STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. 5556.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

June 7, 1971.

H. Allan Dishongh and James L. Sloan, Little Rock, for appellant.

Ray Thornton, Atty. Gen., Mike Wilson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, for appellee.

JONES, Justice.

Richard Neal Williams wasconvicted of first degree murder in the Hempstead County Circuit Court and sentenced to life in the Arkansas Penitentiary. On appeal to this court he relies on the following points for reversal:

'I. The circuit court abused its discretion in admitting State's Exhibit 33 insofar as it consisted of a collection of contraceptive rubbers.

II. The circuit court erred in receiving in evidence State's Exhibit 36, the bloody panties of Carolyn Cassidy.

III. There was no legitimate ground for letting in State's Exhibit 39, a letter of 'Jeannie Day.'

IV. Under the circumstances the Black Orchid Club card was more prejudicial than relevant.

V. State's Exhibit 3 and 4, the photographs of the corpses, were gruesome, morbid, and shocking in the extreme, but barely relevant, if at all. They should have been excluded.

VI. It was the duty of the circuit court to instruct the jury as to the limited purposes for which the evidence of other crimes could be considered.

VII. A manslaughter instruction should have been given.

VIII. Severe prejudice resulted from the circuit court's omission of an instruction on the effect of drunkenness.'

The revolting facts of this case are not greatly in dispute except as to details; and as to whether the 15 year old defendant, Williams, or his 12 year old female companion, Carolyn Cassidy, fired the shots that killed her mother, Lou Dean Cassidy, and her mother's companion and paramour, Paul Parsons.

On Monday morning, March 30, 1970, the bodies of Parsons and Mrs. Cassidy were found within about four feet of each other beside a dirt and gravel road near Nashville in Hempstead County. Parsons had been shot through the right eye and Mrs. Cassidy had been shot through the left eye. Both bodies appeared to have been dragged feet first a short distance from some automobile tracks in the road to where the bodies were found. About the same time the bodies were discovered, Williams was apprehended while driving Parsons' automobile near Mt. Pleasant, Texas.

The undisputed background facts as gleaned from the testimony of Carolyn as well as that of Williams, appear as follows: Parsons was 40 years of age (according to his driver's license) and Williams was 15 years of age and they both lived at Delight, Arkansas. Williams knew and like Parsons, but had been warned by his mother against associating with him. On Sunday evening, March 29, 1970, Williams had planned to go fox hunting with some young friends but the plans miscarried and he came upon Parsons parked in his automobile at his favorite parking place on a street in Delight. In the course of conversation Parsons told Williams that he had a .22 caliber pistol that had been misfiring and Williams suggested that he might be able to fix it. They drove to Parsons' home where they obtained the pistol, then drove to a lumber company building where Williams fired the pistol several times and where they drank some wine furnished by Parsons. After driving around and drinking some beer, Parsons suggested that they drive to Nashville where he knew a woman he could have a date with and Williams agreed to go along. Upon arrival at Nashville, they drove to the Cassidy home where Lou Dean Cassidy got into the automobile with them. They drove around Nashville for a short period of time and then returned to the Cassidy home where they picked up Mrs. Cassidy's 12 year old daughter, Carolyn Susan Cassidy.

Parsons had placed the pistol under the front seat of the automobile and after Mrs. Cassidy and her daughter got into the automobile, they drove to a drive-in cafe where they purchased some cokes; and with Williams and Carolyn in the rear seat, and with Mrs. Cassidy beside him in the front seat, Parsons drove out into the country about 9:30 P.M. and parked the automobile on a dirt and gravel road. Parsons obtained a bottle of whisky from the trunk of the automobile and he and Mrs. Cassidy and Williams drank some whisky mixed with cokes. Parsons and Mrs. Cassidy then got into the rear seat of the automobile and Williams and Carolyn got into the front seat. Parsons and Mrs. Cassidy had sexual relations in the back seat but Carolyn refused to have sexual relations with Williams in the front seat. From this point on Carolyn and Williams differ in their versions of the events that transpired.

Carolyn testified that after her repated refusals to have sexual relations with Williams, her mother as well as Parsons told Williams to leave her alone. She says Williams started crying and talking about a girl who had refused to marry him. She says that he got out of the automobile, fell to the ground, and complained that something was wrong with his legs and that he could not walk. She says that she got into the back seat of the automobile and her mother and Parsons picked Williams up from the ground and laid him on the front seat of the automobile. She says that her mother then put a handkerchief in Williams' mouth to keep him from biting his tongue. She says that she was sitting on the left side of the back seat next to her mother, who was then sitting next to Parsons and partially on his lap. She admits that she was turning the dome light on in the car and that Parsons was insisting that she leave it off. She says that after Williams had lain on the front seat for about 20 minutes, he sat up, pulled her toward him, and demanded that she get back into the front seat with him. She says that when she refused, Williams showed her a pistol which he held in his hand and told her that if she did not get into the front seat with him he would kill her and her mother. She says that she told her mother what Williams had said but that her mother didn't belive her. She says that her mother suggested to Williams that he turn the car radio on and that after attempting to do so, Williams told Parsons that the radio was broken and he should get it fixed. She says that Parsons answered that he would get it fixed the following day and that Williams told him he would not live long enough to get it fixed. She says Williams then shot Parsons in the face with the pistol; that Parsons fell over on her mother and that Williams then turned the pistol on her mother. She says that her mother said 'please don't shoot me,' but that Williams shot her mother. She says that Williams then demanded that she get into the front seat with him and that she did so. She says that when she moved from her position in the back seat, her mother fell over toward the left door. She says that Williams then removed all her clothing, except her brassiere, and that he jerked it from her body and that he then raped her. She says that after Williams raped her, he forced her to commit an act of sodomy and then ordered her to get dressed. She says that she put her clothese back on, except the brassiere which she threw out of the car, and that after Williams got dressed, he first dragged Parsons' body out of the car by the legs and then dragged her mother's body from the car in like manner. She says that Williams then removed articles, including her mother's panties and shoes, from the car and threw them near the bodies; that he then cut the bloody seat covers from the rear seat of the automobile with his pocket knife and threw the seat covers and a bloody floor mat on the ground near the bodies. She testified that Williams then drove the car forward and turned it around; that he then drove back slowly past the bodies to the main highway and then drove south toward Texarkana. She says that Williams ordered her to take everything out of the glove compartment and examine for Parsons' name. She says he made her throw Parsons' wallet out of the car but that Williams altered Parsons' driver's license and kept it. She says that Williams did not drive through Texarkana but after driving around Texarkana, he stopped near a lake where he fired the pistol out of the automobile window to show her it would still shoot, and that after raping her again he drove on toward Redwater, Texas. She says that they stopped for gas and that Williams left without paying for the gas after telling the attendant that he had been in a fight in order to explain the blood in the car. She says that when they reached Maud, Texas, Williams told her he did not want her with him in the event he should be stopped by police; that he gave her 15 cents with which to place a collect phone call to her uncle in Mineral Springs, Arkansas, and that after admonishing her to say she didn't know anything if questioned by the police, he then let her out of the automobile. She testified that she went to a nearby washateria where she reported what had happened; called her uncle collect and was soon picked up by police officers.

Officer David Ward, who apprehended Williams in Mt. Pleasant, Texas, testified that he was in Mt. Pleasant when he received a radio call describing an automobile which had left a filling station without paying for gas; that he was parked on the side of the highway waiting for the automobile when it arrived at about 80 miles an hour. He testified that he pursued the automobile and it failed to slow down or stop when he turned his red lights on. He says that he then turned on his siren and the automobile stopped at one of the turn-throughs at a highway intersection. He says that as he approached the automobile, the door opened and he saw a pistol in the armrest inside the door and that he took possession of it. He testified that Williams was driving the automobile and that before he had said anything to him, Williams said, 'My God man, help me, I've just murdered two people.' He says that Williams...