Williams v. State, No. 20,961.

• Docket Nº: No. 20,961.
• Citation: 168 Ind. 87, 79 N.E. 1079
• Case Date: February 05, 1907
• Court: Supreme Court of Indiana

168 Ind. 87
79 N.E. 1079

WILLIAMS
v.
STATE.

No. 20,961.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

Feb. 5, 1907.

Appeal from Criminal Court, Marion County; Fremont Alford, Judge.

George Williams was convicted of murder in the first degree, and he appeals. Affirmed.

[79 N.E. 1080]

W. H. Beerman and Dan Brown, Jr., for appellant. C. W. Miller, C. C. Hadley, W. C. Geake, and H. M. Dowling, for the State.

HADLEY, J.

About 8 o'clock p.m. of Sunday, September 30, 1906, Edward J. Petticord, a police officer of the city of Indianapolis, was mortally wounded by a pistol shot. Appellant was indicted for the offense, tried, and found guilty of murder in the first degree, and that he suffer death. He appeals.

One assignment is based on the overruling of his motion for a new trial, and the other upon the overruling of his motion in arrest of judgment. It appears from the record that in the afternoon of Sunday, September 30, 1906, the defendant and one Jesse Coe were, with others, congregated on the corner of Northwestern avenue and Twenty-Fourth street, in the city of Indianapolis. One Pat Roache, a police officer of the city, approaching the company, commanded them to disperse, whereupon the defendant and Coe, walking side by side, moved off in the direction of the officer, with their hands in their pockets. They passed the officer without exchanging any words, but one witness testified that as they started towards the officer, Coe remarked generally that “No damn policeman could drive him any place.” A few minutes before 8 o'clock the same evening the defendant and Coe went to the house of William Jackson on Indianapolis avenue, but a short distance from the corner of Northwestern avenue and Twenty-Fourth street, and upon leaving Jackson's house a few minutes later, encountered near the gate, Charles J. Russell, and the deceased, both police officers of said city, and upon being accosted by the officers, the defendant and his companion fired upon them, and after the exchange of a number of shots, Russell and Petticord were found to be mortally wounded.

1. With reference to the incident at the corner of Northwestern avenue and Twenty-Fourth street, a few hours before the homicide, the state propounded to one of its witnesses the following question: “Q. Just describe what you saw these men [Coe and defendant] do, or heard either one of them say in the presence of the other.” The defendant objected to the question “as being immaterial and irrelevant.” The objection was overruled, and the witness permitted to answer. It is a well-established rule in this state, that a party dissatisfied with the ruling of the court upon the admission of testimony must, for the information of the court, state specifically his objections to the admission of the testimony; and a statement that the same is “irrelevant and immaterial” is too indefinite and uncertain to be recognized as an objection. Musser v. State, 157 Ind. 423, 430, 61 N. E. 1, and cases cited; Hicks v. State, 165 Ind. 440, 75 N. E. 641.

2. Referring further to the same circumstance, and to the moment that the defendant and Coe started towards the policeman, the state asked the following question: “Q. Did you notice the positions of their hands at the time they started?” The defendant objected to the question for the reason that it was immaterial where their hands were at the time. The court overruled the objection and allowed the witness to answer. This question is governed by the name rule as stated above.

[79 N.E. 1081]

3. Charles A. Bookwalter, mayor of Indianapolis, a witness for the state, testified that he called at the hospital to see Petticord within a few hours after he was wounded, and in describing what had occurred said: “I stepped up to Petticord's side and took his hand in mine and said: ‘Ed, they have got you here, I see.’ He said ‘Yes, mayor; I am all in.’ I said: ‘Well, old man, you need not get nervous about your condition, we will get you out of here,’ He shook his head and said: ‘I am a goner.’ He said: ‘He has made a sieve of my insides'-and he closed his eyes then.”...