Wood v. State, 39250

• Decision Date: 18 October 1954
• Docket Number: No. 39250,39250
• Citation: 74 So.2d 851,221 Miss. 901
• Parties: Mack WOOD v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 851

74 So.2d 851

221 Miss. 901

Mack WOOD v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 39250.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Oct. 18, 1954.

Sam E. Lumpkin, Tupelo, for appellant.

J. P. Coleman, Atty. Gen., by Joe T. Patterson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

GILLESPIE, Justice.

The appellant, Mack Wood, was jointly indicted with Earnest Rose, Robert Smith Ballow, and Walter R. Scott, for the crime of armed robbery. After severance granted Wood was convicted and sentenced to serve ten years in the penitentiary.

The jury was justified in finding the facts as hereinafter stated. On June 18, 1953, Wood and his coindictees went to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Donald Hendrix on Coontail Road in Monroe County. They rode together in a 1950 model Ford car. They arrived about two o'clock A.M. Rose and Ballow entered the Hendrix home, where Donald Hendrix was dozing on a couch in the living room, his wife being at that time awake and occupying a bed in the bedroom which adjoined the living room. After one of the men introduced himself to Hendrix as 'Wilson', the three men went into the kitchen, where resting on the table was a gallon judg containing moonshine liquor. Rose and Ballow refreshed themselves from the judg and told Hendrix they wanted to buy some liquor. Donald told them he had none to sell but could give them a telephone number of a man who would sell the liquor for $4 per gallon. They discussed liquor matters for about fifteen minutes, the Rose and Ballow went outside to consult with Wood and Scott; and presently Rose and Wood returned to the house and Hendrix was again on the couch in the living room. Rose again referred to the purchase of liquor, and then hit Hendrix on the head with a nickleplated pistol; and after another lick on Hendrix' head with the gun, Rose said, 'You are the one that hi-jacked us for over a hundred cases of whiskey in '49.' Rose then dragged Hendrix into the bedroom, threw him on the bed, then shoved him off on the floor, and told Wood to 'tie him up, Mack'; and Wood tied Hendrix up with seagrass rope. Mrs. Hendrix was also tied up with the same kind of rope. Rose got $1 out of Hendrix' billfold, some change from the radio table, and approximately $500 belonging to Donald Hendrix from a handbag which Mrs. Hendrix had placed beside the bed.

At this point Hendrix' feet were untied, and Rose kept a gun to Hendrix' back while he showed them where he had ten gallons of moonshine liquor hid in the woods. Rose forced Hendrix to drag the whiskey from the underbrush with his hands tied. During this time, Wood was holding a gun on Mrs. Hendrix. After the liquor was loaded in the car in which the men arrived, Rose marched Hendrix back to the house and left him on the living room floor with his hands and feet tied. Rose told Hendrix that if he told the law he would kill him, and Hendrix agreed not to tell the law. Rose or Wood then got Hendrix' gun and both left, after telling Hendrix that if he wasn't the man that hi-jacked them in '49, they would bring the 'little roll back and double it.'

After Rose, Wood, and the others drove away, Mrs. Hendrix gnawed the rope with which she was bound and freed herself; she then freed Hendrix by cutting the rope with a butcher knife. After daylight, Hendrix and his wife reported the robbery and Hendrix was treated by a physician, who testified at the trial as to the extent of the wounds, and that they were from four to eight hours old. Hendrix knew Wood, but never saw his face. Wood was identified by Mrs. Hendrix.

The following night, Highway Patrolmen Wiygul and Smith, arrested Wood, Ballow, Rose and Scott. Ballow was driving forty miles per hour in a thirty-mile zone. They were in a 1950 model Ford, in which the officers, upon searching it, found three pistols, including a nickel-plated one, and some seagrass rope.

Hendrix is a self-confessed bootlegger of long standing and has been convicted of numerous crimes of assorted variety. There are certain other factual details not necessary to mention here. There were also certain inconsistencies in the testimony which the jury no doubt considered.

Wood assigns as error the admission in evidence of the several pieces of rope. The evidence showed that the victims were tied up with pieces of small seagrass rope. Patrolman Smith found this rope, placed it in a cellophane bag, labelled it, and it was introduced in that condition, first, in the trial of Rose, and, later, in the trial of Ballow. Patrolman Wiygul found a coil or piece of small seagrass rope in the automobile in which the parties defendant were arrested the night following the robbery. This piece of rope was also placed in a cellophane bag, labelled, and introduced first in the trial of Rose, and later in the trial of Ballow. By the time the...