Title: Washington v. State

State: mississippi

Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court

Document:

307 So. 2d 430 (1975) Eddie James WASHINGTON v. STATE of Mississippi. No. 48215. Supreme Court of Mississippi. February 3, 1975. Burgin, Gholson, Hicks & Nichols, Robert B. Prather, Columbus, for appellant. A.F. Summer, Atty. Gen. by Ben H. Walley, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee. Before RODGERS, SMITH and SUGG, JJ. SMITH, Justice: Eddie James Washington was tried in the Circuit Court of Clay County upon an indictment charging him with the murder of one Walter Mayes. The jury found him guilty of manslaughter and he was sentenced to serve a term of 20 years in the penitentiary. From the judgment entered pursuant to the verdict he has appealed. It appears that on July 4, 1972, Mayes' automobile had been run into and damaged while parked at the Redonus Cafe. Mayes was unable to learn who had done this. However, from that date Mayes apparently never let up in his efforts to discover the identity of this person. About 3 weeks prior to the encounter which resulted in Mayes' death at the hands of Washington, Mayes had a conversation with one Louise *431 Cousins. Cousins was offered as a witness for the purpose of establishing an uncommunicated threat made in the course of the conversation by Mayes against Washington. The court, on objection, refused to allow the testimony of the threat to go to the jury. The court did allow the witness to testify out of the presence of the jury for the purpose of the record. Her testimony, in part, was as follows: It is contended on behalf of Washington that the exclusion of this testimony constituted prejudicial error, requiring reversal. We are compelled to agree. The defense in the case was self-defense. It was stipulated that both Washington and Mayes, in the fatal encounter, had been armed with loaded pistols. As they met face to face on the occasion of the homicide, again at Redonus Cafe, Mayes challenged Washington as having been the person who had run into his car on July 4, and stated that he, Mayes, should knock Washington's brains out. Washington testified that it was following this that Mayes had reached for his gun and that he, Washington, had been compelled to fire in necessary self-defense. The evidence, including the testimony of Washington, was conflicting and created a sharp factual issue as to who had been the aggressor. Although the killing stemmed from the incident involving Mayes' car, which had occurred on July 4, some 5 or 6 months previously, Mayes still had not abandoned his determination to identify the man who had damaged his car. The testimony of the witness was not cumulative but constituted the only evidence of an explicit threat uttered against Washington by Mayes. Moreover, it was of a threat which appears to have derived from the same incident which, less than 3 weeks after the threat was made, brought about the fatal shooting. It was not too remote, in time, particularly in view of the overall circumstances of the case. This Court dealt with the subject in Rucker v. State, 248 Miss. 65, 158 So. 2d 39 (1963). In Rucker the Court said: The July 4 incident involving Mayes' automobile, the belief on the part of Mayes that Washington had been responsible for it, and his determination to call him to account, brought on the encounter which resulted in the death of Mayes. We think the testimony as to the threat was relevant and material upon the issue as to who had been the aggressor, and that the jury, as the trier of facts, should have been permitted to hear it. The case will be reversed and remanded for a new trial. Reversed and remanded. GILLESPIE, C.J., and PATTERSON, INZER, ROBERTSON, WALKER and BROOM, JJ., concur.