Walker v. State (170 S.W.2d 229, 1943)

BEAUCHAMP, Judge.

' The appeal' is from a sentence of five years in the penitentiary on a charge of murder.

Irene Walker and Ellean Bullocks, colored, and twin sisters, were jointly charged and tried for the murder of Clyda Mae Cook. Ellean Bullocks received a suspended sentence at a joint trial with appellant. The offense was alleged to have been committed on the 16th day of May, 1942. The evidence on behalf of the State is sharply in conflict in the minutest detail with that given by the defense. A girl companion of the deceased gave testimony at length covering the details of the homicide and involving the two sisters as principals in the crime. She and the deceased were walking on the streets of Amarillo at evening time in search of somebody who would ask them for a date. They had passed the home of the appellants sister and casually noticed both of them standing in front of the door near the sidewalk talking to a man. When a «.Aort distance away, the deceased screamed as she discovered the sisters approaching her, one with a gun and the other with a knife. .The deceased ran across the street screaming for her mother repeatedly while appellant followed her in close pursuit, shooting her in the back and inflicting two wounds, either of which, it is testified, might have been fatal. Ellean handed her knife to Irene and implored her to finish the job. As the .deceased lay on the ground mortally wounded, appellant approached her, grabbed her .by the hair and kicked her and then stabbed her in the heart with a knife. She also inflicted other wounds, indicating an effort to cut her throat, according to the State’s theory. The defense denied that Ellean had any connection with the .affair, thait she had a knife or took any part in it, and introduced evidence of self-defense¡for Irene, which seemed to have had but little .support by the physical, facts regardless :o£ the impression which it might have madp on the jury.

The only indication of a motive for. the crime is found in the mention of a previcjup conflict between the deceased and appellant •over a man with whom appellant had associated up until the time that she found hipi with the deceased -in a beer joint an,d •dancing place in the early part of May. An arrest followed this altercation but,..if$ connection with the final tragedy in. ¡the triangle is not sufficiently revealed to fonp any basis for discussion. Probably the jurors were able to vision something behind the scene supporting their conclusion that(a v-ery low penalty should be assessed .fop this brutal and wanton killing. .. ,

The record is before us without bills -o!f exception. ' There'is but -a 'brief, exception to the court’s charge which we conside'r óf little consequence. It will require no discussion. -The procedure appears -to berifi every way regular-. No brief has been presented indicating grounds for reversal. I

The judgment of the trial court is accordingly affirmed. ■ !