Case Name: WILLIAMS v. STATE
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1921-11-09
Citations: 235 S.W. 594
Docket Number: No. 6244
Parties: WILLIAMS v. STATE.
Judges: 
Reporter: South Western Reporter
Volume: 235
Pages: 594–596

Head Matter:
WILLIAMS v. STATE.
(No. 6244.)
(Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
Nov. 9, 1921.
Rehearing Denied Dec. 21, 1921.)
1. Homicide <@=>9, 43 — Intent to kill may bo formed1 at any time; when adequate cause renders defendant incapable of cool reflection, killing is manslaughter.
To convict of murder, defendant’s intent to kill need not have existed at the time he went to the place of killing; but he might at any time thereafter have formed the intent, and been guilty of murder, unless at the time his mind from adequate cause was in a state rendering him incapable of cool reflection, in which case the offense would be manslaughter.
2. Homicide <@=>282 — To reduce homicide to manslaughter, question of adequate cause producing passion is for Jury.
In prosecution for murder, whether there was adequate causa for passion, or whether the passion existed and rendered the mind incapable of cool reflection, reducing the crime to manslaughter as declared in Pen. Code 1911, art. 1137, was for the jury.
3. Homicide <@=>269 — Defendant’s state of mind question of fact.
In prosecution for murder, the state of accused’s mind at the time he formed the design to kill was a question of fact.
4. Homicide <@=>250 — Evidence held to sustain conviction of murder.
In prosecution for murder, evidence held to support conviction.
On Motion for Behearing.
5. Homicide <®=cll — Malice can arise instantly.
Malice requires no specific length of time for germination or growth, but can arise any instant.
Appeal from District Court, Gregg County; Chas. L. Braehfield, Judge.
John Williams was convicted of murder, and he appeals.
Affirmed.
F. J. McCord, J. N. Campbell, and K. S. Wyehe, all of Longview, for appellant.
B. H. Hamilton, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

Opinion:
MOBBOW, P. J.
Conviction is for murder; punishment fixed at confinement in the penitentiary for a period of seven years. It is insisted that the court erred in submitting the issue of murder, and claimed that no evidence supports a higher degree of homicide than manslaughter. <
Appellant was the owner of a farm. Alex Stevens was a tenant. Judge Stevens, the deceased, was the son of Alex Stevens, and resided with him. Appellant shot and killed Judge Stevens at the home of his father. The eyewitnesses were Alex Stevens and Bichard Denson. According to Denson, when appellant arrived, Alex Stevens had gone for some water. Deceased was cutting wood. Appellant spoke first, and told the deceased that he thought he was going to cut some posts, as he had promised to do. The deceased replied that he was cutting wood, and did not intend to cut posts, whereupon the appellant remarked that he would get some one there that would' do so, when deceased cursed appellant, who told him not to do so, accompanying his words with a motion indicating that he would piek up something. Deceased wheeled, and went into the house, and got his gun. His father, approaching, hollered to him not to get his gun, and when the deceased appeared with it, appellant grabbed it. The witness ran around the house, and later saw the deceased, run, and appellant following him. He saw the deceased look around, heard the report of a gun, and saw the deceased fall. At the time he was shot, the deceased was running.
Alex Stevens' description of the main facts, in substance, coincide with that of Denson. He also said that, when the deceased came out of the house with the gun, he (the witness) took hold of him; that appellant was some 10 or 12 steps distant, and that, while he was contending with his son, the appellant rushed up and snatched the gun out of his hand, and the boy ran toward the south around the west end of the house. Williams ran after him, and on reaching the west end of the house he fired, the distance between them being about 16 steps. The deceased was struck in the face and died in- about an hour.
The appellant testified that, before going to the scene of the homicide, he was requested to do so by Alex Stevens, who said that he was not progressing with his work, because his son would not help him, and asked the appellant to come and see him; that there had been a previous promise to cut some posts; that on reaching the premises he engaged in a conversation with the deceased, who finally began to curse him and said, "I have been wanting to kill you, and I will just kill you," and ran and got his gun; that his father, who was approaching, hollered and tried to stop him; that the deceased leveled the gun at appellant before the old man arrived at the house, while he was approaching with the water; that he undertook to get around the corner of the house, and deceased came after him, when he grabbed the gun and engaged in a scuffle, in which the father took part, and said:
"Me and Uncle Alex and Judge were all scuffling, and if Judge run I didn't see him. I didn't know anything else until the gun fired. So Uncle Alex ran on me for the gun, but I never turned the gun loose, and I wheeled and went off, and by the time I got halfway between my house and where Uncle Alex Stevens lived, I heard him say,.'Judge is dead.' "
There was some evidence about measurements and about the location of objects, bearing upon the ability of the witnesses to see what took place. We- regard it as simply bearing on any conflict in the evidence concerning the incidents immediately attending the homicide, and not as raising any question of law.
Counsel takes the position that, upon the undisputed evidence, the appellant went to the premises unarmed, upon the invitation of the deceased's father, upon a peaceful njission and for a lawful purpose, and that the manner in which the homicide took place and the facts immediately preceding it excluded the theory of malice, as a matter of law. Granting that there was evidence which might have reduced the grade of the offense to manslaughter, whether it did so would depend upon the condition of appellant's mind, necessarily a question of fact. There was some evidence of a previous difficulty antedating the homicide some months. To characterize the case as murder, it would not be necessary that the jury believe that the appellant had the intent to kill the deceased when he went to the home of Alex Stevens. He might, at any time thereafter, have formed the intent and be guilty of murder .unless, at the time, his mind, from an adequate cause, was in a state rendering him incapable of cool reflection. This principle is illustrated in the case of McCoy v. State, 25 Tex. 37, 78 Am. Dec. 520, which is cited by tbe appellant. See, also, Jones v. State, 29 Tex. App. 340, 15 S. W. 403; Fairer v. State, 42 Tex. 265; Atkinson v. State, 20 Tex. 522; Duebbe v. State, 1 Tex. App. 159.
We are referred by tbe appellant to West v. State, 2 Tex. App. 460; Moffatt v. State, 35 Tex. Cr. R. 257, 33 S. W. 344; Mason v. State, 72 Tex. Cr. R. 501,163 S. W. 66; Burton v. State, 77 Tex. Cr. R. 314, 178 S.W. 334. These eases each pertinently support tbe proposition that if, under tbe facts in tbe instant case, tbe court bad failed to charge upon tbe law of manslaughter, it would have been in error; but, as we comprehend them, none of them support tbe contention urged by tbe appellant that it was tbe duty of tbe court to omit from the charge the issue of murder. Tbe facts in evidence may have been such as justified tbe jury in concluding that adequate cause existed. This was a question for tbe jury, and the effect of proof of adequate cause upon the mind of tbe accused was a question of fact. The jury must decide whether there was adequate cause for passion, and whéther the passion existed, and whether it rendered tbe mind incapable of cool reflection. Such is tbe statute. Article 1137 of the Penal Code, which says, in substance, that, in order to reduce a voluntary homicide to tbe grade of manslaughter, it is necessary that not Only adequate cause exist, but it must produce passion as described by tbe statute, rendering the mind incapable of cool reflection. Such has been the construction in Branch's Ann. Texas Penal Code, § 2029, and cases listed; also section 2002. If there be an exception to this rule (see Doss v. State, 43 Tex. Cr. R. 551, 67 S. W. 321), the case before us is not within it.
The state of appellant's mind at the time he formed the design to kill was a question of fact, and not of law. In its charge, the court informed the jury concerning the law in a manner to which there is addressed no complaint. We believe that we would not be warranted in holding that there was no evidence upon which to predicate the charge upon murder, or that the evidence in the record was not adequate to support the conviction for that offense.
The judgment is affirmed.
<®c^For other rases see same topic and KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes
©=oFor other cases see same topic and KEY-NUMBER in ail Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes