Wilson v. State, 33657
| Decision Date | 01 November 1961 |
| Docket Number | No. 33657,33657 |
| Citation | 171 Tex.Crim. 573,352 S.W.2d 114 |
| Parties | Donald Ray WILSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
George McManus, Fort Worth, Robert Kilpatrick, Cleburne, for appellant.
Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
DICE, Commissioner.
Murder is the offense; the punishment, death.
The state's proof shows that the deceased, James Edward Layland, seventy-eight years of age, lived alone on a small farm located approximately three miles northeast of the city of Cleburne on what was known as the old Mansfield Road. On the afternoon of November 29, 1960, appellant and a companion, John Leonard Watson, appeared in the neighborhood, on foot, seeking assistance in moving appellant's automobile from a road where it had struck a rock. They first came to the house of Claude Campbell, which was across the road from the deceased's home, and then went to the home of the deceased where the deceased watching television. Efforts to move the watching television. Efforts to move the automobile culminated in Campbell towing the automobile from the road into his pasture with a tractor. The automobile was moved around the middle of the afternoon, after which appellant and his companion left, walking in the direction of the deceased's home.
At 5 p. m., the deceased's neighbor, Williams, who had returned to his home, observed two men running from the deceased's barn across a field. At 5:20 p. m., Williams went to the home of the deceased where his attention was attracted to a dog barking at the barn. He then proceeded to the barn, where he observed the deceased's dead body lying inside that portion of the building used for a chicken house. When found, the body of the deceased was lying on its back, covered with blood, and it appeared to have been dragged inside the barn.
In the investigation which ensued, it was discovered that the deceased's house had been pilfered, a desk drawer had been torn open and the contents thrown on the floor and certain articles had been taken from the closets and a chest of drawers and thrown on the floor.
An autopsy performed upon the deceased's body by Dr. Tolbert F. Yater revealed multiple bruises, cuts, and lacerations about the head and neck and other cuts and stab wounds on the body. Dr. Yater testified that in his opinion the cause of death of the deceased was a stab wound in the back.
Appellant and his companion were arrested and taken into custody by Deputy Sheriff Bobby Pollard around 7 p. m. on the evening in question when they drove up in a wrecker, with its owner, to where appellant's automobile had been left in the pasture. When taken into custody, appellant was wearing a blue suit, which did not fit him, and a khaki shirt which had the name 'Ed Layland' in the collar. A khaki shirt was found in the wrecker cab, on the floor, which was also labeled with the same name.
Upon being questioned by the officers, appellant admitted that he killed the deceased and accompanied them to a location on a fence row, approximately three-quarters of a mile from the deceased's home, where he pointed out and recovered a knife and scabbard, which knife he admitted he used in the killing. Some bloody clothing was also found on the fence row, which appellant stated he was wearing at the time he killed the deceased.
Appellant's written confession, made to State Ranger George M. Roach, was introduced in evidence without objection.
The confession, omitting the formal portions, reads in part as follows:
'* * * on Tuesday, November 29, 1960, Leonard Watson and I left Dallas in my car, a 1949 Ford, about noon and we got to Cleburne about 3:00 P.M. on the same day. We turned off of highway 67 just after we passed Keene. We turned north off the highway, and xxxDRW I lost control of the car and ran off in a bar ditch near Mr. Campbell's house, which I believe is called the Mansfield Road. It is about four miles northeast of Cleburne in Johnson County, Texas. I went up to Mr. Campbell's and asked about his sons, Dan and Charles, but neither of them was there. We then went to Uncle Ed's house on the Mansfield Road. My granddad, C. W. xxxDRW Williams was there and he tried to pull my car out of the ditch with his car, but he could not pull it out. Then we went back to Campbell's house and Mr. Campbell took his tractor and pulledmy car out of the ditch and took it to his house. Then Leonard and I went back to Uncle Ed's house. The man I call 'Uncle Ed' is not actually my uncle, but everyone in the neighborhood called him by that name. I believe his name is Ed Layland. We watched television for a while. We talked a while. I read the funnies in the Sunday paper, which was still in the house. Then we went to the chicken house. Leonard, uncle Ed and I went out there and uncle Ed fed the chickens. Leonard went outside. While uncle Ed and I were in the chicken house I thought he had some money and I decided to kill him. I had been thinking about it all the time we were there. I started choking him and got him down on the ground, and then I hit him with a rock two or three times. The rock is a little bigger than my hand and it has a sharp point on it. After I hit him with the rock I let him up and he started to holler for help, and I hit him with my fist and knocked him down, and he started to get up and tried to hit me or choke me and then I hit him in the gut with my knife. Then Leonard and I went back to uncle Ed's house where I changed clothes.
'Donald Ray Wilson
The state's proof further shows that a set of fingerprints, photographed on a glass top of the desk in the deceased's home, were identical with fingerprints taken from appellant. A blood specimen taken from the deceased's body, upon being examined in the crime laboratory of the State Department of Public Safety, was shown to be type 'O'. An examination of blood stains on the clothing which appellant was wearing at the time of the killing revealed that the...
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...appellant's verification can be sufficient. The State, in answering this question in the negative, relies on Wilson v. State, 171 Tex.Cr.R. 573, 352 S.W.2d 114 (Tex.Cr.App.1961), and Carruthers v. State, 143 Tex.Cr.R. 45, 156 S.W.2d 988 (Tex.Cr.App.1941). Wilson held that the "unverified mo......
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