Wooten v. State
| Decision Date | 02 May 1958 |
| Citation | 314 S.W.2d 1,203 Tenn. 473,7 McCanless 473 |
| Parties | Woodrow Wilson WOOTEN, Plaintiff in Error, v. STATE of Tennessee, Defendant in Error. 7 McCanless 473, 203 Tenn. 473, 314 S.W.2d 1 |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Hughie Ragan, Jackson, for plaintiff in error.
James M. Glasgow, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Plaintiff in error, Woodrow Wilson Wooten hereinafter called defendant, was convicted of burglary with explosives and was sentenced to 25 years in the State Penitentiary. He has appealed and assigned numerous errors. We shall not treat them separately but only to the extent necessary to reach the merits of the appeal.
On the night of September 26, 1957, the Dr. Pepper Bottling Plant, a business building in Jackson, Madison County, Tennessee, belonging to one M. C. Jolly, was broken into and by means of explosives the money safe was opened and more than $500 in money was taken. The burglary was discovered about 8:00 o'clock the next morning by the owner and it was evident from the damaged condition of the safe, the office and part of the office fixtures that a crime had been committed and simple inspection of the inside of the safe disclosed the absence of the money. Further investigation by the owner and the Jackson police disclosed that a number of checks and other papers had been removed and scattered around in the back of the premises and shortly afterwards they went to a motel located on the adjoining property, where they discovered in a certain room that some of these papers with Mr. Jolly's name thereon had been torn up and dropped in the commode but the same had not been flushed down; among these was a receipt to Mr. Jolly for six-dollars' worth of tickets to the Shrine Club Circus.
By examination of the motel records, it was disclosed that this room or cabin had been occupied by an individual who gave his name as Paul Abner of 621 Central Avenue, Hot Springs, Arkansas, and his car license number as taken down by the motel clerk appeared on the registration card as 9B167. There was also found in this room grass and mud on the floor and a dirty face towel which had some substance on it and wrapped up in it that appeared to be both mud and another substance that was not easily identified.
About the middle of December on a date not otherwise shown except by the testimony of defendant who said it was Saturday, December 14, he was arrested in Memphis, the Jackson police were notified and on Sunday, the 15th, in the presence of two Jackson police officers and two Memphis police officers, defendant made a written confession. He stated that he went to Jackson on September 25, rented a room at said motel, registering under the name of Paul Abner; that he climbed the fence between the motel and the bottling plant and when he reached the rear of the plant, he found a window unlocked through which he entered. He then took a hammer and knocked an arm off the safe and the combination on the door and inserted nitroglycerin, lit a fuse and then on account of his suspicion that the safe contained a tear gas bomb, he went outside the building back to his motel room and returned several hours later when he took the contents of the safe. He admitted putting the papers in the commode and stated that in his hurry to get away he forgot to flush the commode and that after he had been gone some time he thought of it but he was afraid to go back.
Then after he had been transferred from Memphis to the Jackson jail, Mr. Jolly accompanied by an employe and a Jackson police officer went to see him in the jail. He became talkative and stated to Mr. Jolly that he was sorry for what he had done, that he had no hard feelings against him personally and advised him to put his safe in a different location in the building where it would be in the light (and more easily observed from the outside presumably).
The police took from his person his Arkansas driver's license dated August 10, 1957, which was in the name of Harry Paul Abner, Hot Springs, Arkansas. It was also developed that his car license was 913167, which quite evidently the motel clerk read to be 9B167.
The first two assignments of error relate to whether there is any evidence to support the verdict and to the preponderance of the evidence and counsel for defendant frankly concedes that if these confessions were properly admitted into evidence, these two assignments must be overruled.
When the written confession taken by the police officers in Memphis was offered in evidence, objection was made in behalf of the defendant. Thereupon the jury was excused and the trial judge heard the testimony of the two Jackson Officers, Lt. Davis and Sgt. Alderson. They both testified that the confession was freely and voluntarily given and that no promises of any kind were given to the defendant and that he was advised, as the written statement shows, that the statement could be used against him. On the other hand, the defendant testified that he was arrested on Saturday afternoon and was continually questioned all through the night until the next day and that the Memphis officers, before the Jackson officers arrived, had told him that he could not get more than three to ten years and that if he would come clean he might get as little as 11 months and 29 days for third degree burglary, and particularly he testified that those same officers were present when Sgt. Alderson, the Jackson officer, took the statement from him and that the Memphis officers repeated the same promises in the presence of Sgt. Alderson and that a Capt. Wilson, who does not appear by any other testimony or from the confession itself to have been present, said that if he would sign the confession he would not have to go back to Kentucky, where he was a parole violator on a life sentence for murder. He further testified that Mr. Alderson took his hands and made a sign and said, 'If you sign the confession you won't get over three to ten and I'll talk to the judge and attorney general', and that he said, 'I can depend on that?' And Alderson said, 'Yes sir'. Then he said that Alderson said that he just wanted to get the thing straightened up to satisfy the people down at Jackson and he then told Alderson he was making this statement because he had received a life sentence in Kentucky and he did not want to go back there and he was making the statement on the promise that he would not get more than three to ten years.
Then with reference to Mr. Jolly's statement about the voluntary statement made to him, the defendant denied that he admitted any guilt to Mr. Jolly and he said that he did not know anything about Mr. Jolly's safe except what he learned from the police officers, although he admitted that he did give Mr. Jolly the advice about where to locate his safe.
The trial judge, after hearing the conflicting testimony, ruled against the defendant and admitted the confessions into evidence.
The first point insisted upon by defendant is that, since...
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