198 Mo. 225 | Mo. | 1906
At the April term, 1904, of the criminal court of Jackson county, Missouri, at Kansas City, .Missouri, the prosecuting attorney of said county filed the following information:
“State of Missouri, County of Jackson.
“In the Criminal Court of Jackson County, Missouri, at Kansas City, Missouri, April Term, A. D. 1904.
*232 “Now comes Roland Hughes, prosecuting attorney for the State of Missouri, in and for the body of the county of Jackson, and upon his official oath informs the court, that Maggie Myers, alias Aggie Myers, whose Christian name in full is unknown to said prosecuting attorney, late of the county aforesaid, on the 11th day of May, 1904, at the county of Jackson, State of Missouri, in and upon one Clarence Myers then and there being, feloniously, wilfully, deliberately, premeditatedly, on purpose and of her malice aforethought, did make an assault and with a dangerous and deadly weapon, to-wit, a certain club or bludgeon, a certain razor and a certain pair of scissors which she the said Maggie Myers alias Aggie Myers in her hands then and there had and held, she the said Maggie Myers alias Aggie Myers, in and upon the head, neck and body of him the said Clarence Myers then and thére feloniously, wilfully, deliberately, premeditatedly, on purpose and of her malice aforethought did beat, bruise, cut, stab and wound thus and thereby, then and there feloniously, willfully, deliberately, premeditatedly, on purpose and of her malice aforethought, with the club or bludgeon, razor and scissors aforesaid, giving to the said Clarence Myers in and upon the head, neck and body of him, the said Clarence Myers, twenty mortal wounds of which said mortal wounds the said Clarence Myers, on the 11th day of May in the year aforesaid, at the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, then and there immediately died; and so the prosecuting attorney aforesaid, upon his official oath aforesaid, doth say, that the said Maggie Myers, alias Aggie Myers him the said Clarence Myers at thes county aforesaid, in the manner and by the means aforesaid, feloniously, wilfully, deliberately, premeditatedly, on purpose and of*233 her malice aforethought did kill and murder; against the peace and dignity of the State.
“Roland Hughes,
“Prosecuting Attorney.
“Roland Hughes, prosecuting attorney of Jackson county, Missouri, makes oath and says that the facts stated in the above and foregoing information are true, according to his best information and belief.
“Roland Hughes.
“Subscribed and sworn to before me this 25th day of July, 1901.
‘ ‘ John R. Ranson,
“(Seal.) Clerk of the Criminal court of Jackson County, Mo.
“By J. E. Gilday, Deputy Clerk.”
The defendant Maggie Myers was arrested and by her counsel filed motions to quash the information on the ground that it failed to state with which of the said several weapons mentioned in the information, said assault was made, and does not state whether the mortal wounds were inflicted with said club or bludgeon or with a razor or with a pair of scissors. This motion was heard and overruled, to which action of the court in overruling the same, the defendant duly excepted at the time. The defendant was duly arraigned upon this said information and entered a plea of not guilty thereto. An application for a change of venue on the ground of the prejudice of the inhabitants of Jackson county was made by the defendant and sustained by the court, and a change of venue was granted to the circuit court of Clay county, in the seventh judicial circuit of this State.
The evidence on the trial tended to prove the following facts:
On the 10th day of May, 1904, the defendant, Maggie Myers, and her husband, Clarence Myers, were living alone in a cottage at No. 2313 Terrace street in Kansas City, Jackson county, Missouri. They had been married about four years and had no children. Clarence Myers, the husband, was a printer by trade and was foreman of a printing office. At times he worked at night and slept in the daytime. He was industrious and had a well-furnished, comfortable home. The defendant, Maggie Myers, at the time mentioned, was about 28 years of age. Her maiden name was Brock, and for several years before her marriage she had lived with her parents in the city of Higginsville, Missouri. She had first married a man by the name of Payne, and lived with him for a time at Independence, Missouri. She procured a divorce from Payne and went to live with her parents at Kansas City, who in the meantime had moved to the latter place. There she married Clarence Myers. During the residence of the Brock family at Higginsville, a family by the name of Hottman resided near them, and the defendant was then on intimate terms socially with the children of the Hottman family. Prank Hottman, one of the Hottman children, though younger than the defendant, knew her well, and afterwards visited the Brock family at Kansas City, when the defendant, after her divorce from Payne, made her home there. After the defendant took
About three o’clock on the morning of the 11th of May, 1904, Frank McGowan, about fourteen years of age, went out of the McGowan house into the back yard, and when returning saw a light burning low in the Myers home. About five o’clock on the same morn
About four feet to the southwest and in front of the sideboard was a pool of blood on the carpet, covering about the space covered by a rug or wash tub ; there was blood smeared on the north wall of the dining room, on the dining room side of the door leading into the kitchen, and on the north wall along and against which that side of the door stood when open. There was a wash basin of bloody water found in the dining room by the stove, and there were hloody finger prints on the water bucket and on the handle of the dipper, in the kitchen. A calender hanging on the dining room wall had been torn, part of it left on the wall, part on the floor and part in the stove; it was smeared with blood. The north bedroom indicated that a desperate struggle had there taken place. The bed clothing was bloody and disordered, and bed slats were broken and strewn about the room. The defendant said she had been robbed and that her watch and jewelry had been stolen, and a search of the house was made by the officers. In the bottom drawer of a dresser in the north bedroom a shaving set was found in a cigar box; a razor was found in this box in a case, and blood was found within the handle. In the closet of the same room, covered with bed clothes and pillows, was found a number 7 1-8 size hat, wet and bloody. This hat was afterwards
There was an organ in the parlor in which, after unscrewing and taking off the boards on the back, there was found in the bottom in one corner a jewelry box, containing defendant’s watch and jewelry, consisting of some nine rings, which she had said had been stolen. The murdered man’s clothing, containing his watch, twenty-five cents in change and some trinkets and tools used in his work, were found neatly folded on a chair in the dining room. The defendant’s purse or chatelaine, containing some change and two dollars stained with blood, was found on the table in the same room. The foregoing articles were fully identified and offered in evidence. Dr. Burkhart, who had been sent for by the father of the defendant, examined her between eight and nine o’clock on the morning of that day, and found blood around her finger nails and on her hands, the latter having the appearance of having been recently washed.
After the homicide Frank Hottman first went to St. Joseph, then to his father’s, where he obtained money, and fled to Walla Walla, Washington. At the latter place fie was afterwards apprehended, made a confession, was brought back, tried and convicted for the murder of Clarence Myers. The defendant was taken in charge by the officer on the day of the homicide and detained two days and then released. She was again arrested on the 2nd day of July, 1904. Before her arrest on said second day of July, 1904, while making her home with her mother in Kansas City, the defendant
In November, after the defendant’s arrest, a letter was received by Mrs. Hottman, Frank Hottman’s mother, asking her to have her daughter Bertha see Frank and tell him to keep his mouth shut, that he was going against his best friend. This letter was identified as being in the handwriting of the defendant, marked Exhibit “P, ” and was offered in evidence. Shortly before Frank Hottman’s trial, Mary Schulz, a close friend of defendant who visited her at the jail, went to Higginsville and delivered to Mrs. Hottman a written statement purported to be the statement of the defendant concerning her relations with the Hottman family, and the murder of Clarence Myers, together with the following letter to Mr. and Mrs. Hottman, which statement and letter are as follows:
“Exhibit Q.” “My statement: Thay were all-ways goods friends of ours, we usta live by them at H. V. we were all most children rased together. After I came to Kansas City I all ways rote to them after I and Clarence was married one.or the other of the girls stade with us a good deal from three to four*242 weeks at a time and I told them Clarence send them money to come sometimes. That he likes them and wonted them to stay with me. He worked nights sometimes and we always got along good together. I and Clarence also the-girls, thay asked me about Frank I said he was only at my house twist 2 after I was married, once before Christmas and once about two weeks before this troubel May 11 and I never had seen him sence. he stade all night at our house come up with some boys, come up on two o’ clock train in afternoon and went back on the 8 next morning, I said I and him and Clarence went over to Mama that evening, stade till bed time. Thay asked me if I went to the show with him the first time he was here. I said twist but thay asked me if I ever rote to him. I sed, I rite, to the girls often but never rote to him once and a grate while, five to seven months and he when came up the first time' he came to hunt work and that Clarence tried to get him work thay sed was Clarence jeolous I sed no. I said Mary usta stay with me. She was there a good deal when Frank was there. Mary and I and Frank was to one dance together. He was at our house about three weeks. Thay asked how old-Frank was. I sed 19 or 20, and I would be 22 in October. I told them.I visited H. V. about once a year, that you all seem all-most as near to me as my own folks, they asked about Frank; he is a good onnest boy he wooden harm any one. I sed I sent for the girls sometimes to come up and help me som. my full name Aggie Margaret and that toots was Mary name thay asked me why my watch being in the Orgin. I told them I always kept them there and money too that Bertie could tell them that I sed I never went to many dances, that when Nettie was there we went a time or to but Clarence was with us and I sed Berther was at my house after Frank was a stade all night. I sed I hading rote to Frank or heard from him sence. when his pa was at .our house he tole me him and Frank was ditchen in the country. I*243 didant no Frank was going, he told me that thay a litle stear was up at Higginsville. ”
“Exhibit Q.” “Mr. and Mrs. Hottman; I rote this statement down of mine as near as I remember it and want you all to say the same as I do as near you can for it will be better for us all to tell the same things, it will help us all out. better than if we all could tell defint stories. I want the two girls for my witness when my time comes. I wood give any thing to see you all. can’t some of you come, well i will close with best wishes and regards to all. as ever yours true friend.”
This statement and letter were fully identified as being in the handwriting of the defendant, and were marked “Exhibit Q.” and offered in evidence.
In addition to the foregoing facts and circumstances, Frank Hottman himself was a witness against the defendant, and testified as to his relations with the defendant, and in detail as to the conspiracy entered into between himself and the defendant, at the suggestion and instance of the latter, for the murder of her husband. He recited not only the various meetings between them to plan and carry out this awful crime, but also told the jury of the desperate struggle in which it was successfully executed by himself and the faithless wife. The direct testimony of Hottman as to the guilt of the defendant but confirms and explains the circumstantial evidence which, independent of Ms evidence, irresistibly leads to the same result.
1. Numerous errors are assigned for the reversal of the judgment and sentence of the circuit court and they will be considered and determined in the order of their assignment in the brief of the defendant. The first error alleged by the defendant is the refusal of the circuit court to grant the defendant a continuance after both parties had announced ready for trial and after the jury had been impaneled on the grounds that the names of the witnesses Frank Hottman, Nettie Hottman, Bertha Hottman, Ella Hottman and John Hott-
The contention of the defendant, it will be observed, is based upon section 2517, Revised Statutes 1899, which provides: “"When an indictment is found by the grand jury, the names of all the material witnesses must be endorsed upon the indictment; other witnesses may be subpoenaed or sworn by the State, but no continuance shall be granted to the State on account of the absence of any witness whose name is not thus endorsed on the indictment, unless upon the affidavit of
2. It is next insisted that the court erred in overruling the defendant’s challenge to the jurors Lancaster, Golden, Gossett, Borgnier, Wharton, Miller, Soper and Capps for the reason that the said jurors on their voir dire examination testified that they had formed opinions as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant from having read a copy of the confession of Prank Hottman published in the Kansas City newspapers. To this assignment of error the State makes two answers: first, no specific ground of challenge was stated by the defendant to either or all of said jurors; and, second, that the jurors were not incompetent because they had formed an opinion from the reading of the newspaper report of the Hottman trial, and what purported to be Hottman’s confession published in the newspapers. The record discloses that upon the close, of the
‘‘ The defendants, of course, were entitled to a full and competent panel of forty men before announcing their final challenges, but in reaching this stage of the proceedings it became necessary to make what might be termed intermediary challenges. In making such preliminary challenges, that is, challenges -for cause, this formula was observed at the close of the examination of each venireman: ‘Counsel for defendants objected to this juror as disqualified and not qualified to sit as a competent juror in this cause, and challenged said juror for cause. Objection and challenge overruled, to which ruling defendant excepted.’ Nothing is better settled than that challenges for cause must be specifically stated. The particular cause must be set forth. [People v. Reynolds, 16 Cal. 128; Mann v. Glover, 14 N. J. L. 195; Powers v. Presgroves, 38 Miss. 227; Southern Pacific Co. v. Rauh, 49 Fed. 696; Drake v. State, 20 Atl. 747; 2 Elliott’s Gen. Prac., sec. 530, and other cases there cited.] The facts constituting the cause of complaint were not given in this instance; the challenge simply amounted to the statement of a legal conclusion. The rule should be the same here as it is where general objections are taken to the evidence,*249 that it is incompetent, immaterial, etc., and where it is held that general objections amount to nothing more than saying, ‘I object.’ Indeed,' there seem to be more cogent reasons why specific objections should be urged in a case of this sort, where the question is as to the admission of a juryman, then where it is as to the admission of a piece of evidence. At any rate, in either case, fairness to the court and to adverse counsel alike demand the grounds of the challenge for cause to be particularly set forth.”
The doctrine announced in that case on this point was reaffirmed in State v. Reed, 137 Mo. 1. c. 132; State v. McGinnis, 158 Mo. 1. c. 118; and in State v. Evans, 161 Mo. 1. c. 108.
Counsel for the defendant, however, insists that in this case the ground of the challenge was so apparent to the court and the opposite counsel that they could not have been misled as to the ground of the challenge. We are unable to concur in this view. These jurors had been fully examined as to their competency, and among other things as to their opinions formed from reading newspaper reports. If the objection was intended to be based specifically upon the ground of opinions formed or expressed, it should have been so stated and the matter properly preserved for our review.
Moreover, we are of the opinion that the jurors were not disqualified because they had formed an opinion from reading the newspaper reports of the Hottman trial and what purported to be Hottman’s confession, because each one of said jurors testified that he could sit as a juror in this case and be governed solely by the evidence and render an impartial verdict, notwithstanding his opinion formed from the reading of such newspaper reports and such opinion as he had was based entirely upon the newspaper reports. Section 2616, Revised Statutes 1899, provides: “It shall be a good cause of challenge to a juror that he has formed or delivered an opinion on the
The extra-judicial confession of Frank Hottman, published in the newspaper, only purported to be a fragment of the evidence which would be admitted against Hottman, an unsworn statement by him, and it does not bring it within the rule in State v. Culler, 82 Mo. 623, in which it was held that one who has read the evidence taken before the coroner in a case of homicide either as originally written or as printed in the newspaper, or who has read the evidence in a criminal case onpreliminaryexaminationbeforea justice of the peace and formed an opinion therefrom, in either case is disqualified from serving as a juror in the trial of such a
3. Defendant assigns as error the action of the circuit court in permitting Frank Hottman to testify-over her objection, because it appeared by the preliminary examination of the witness that he was an accomplice in the crime for which defendant was on trial, and had himself been convicted of murder in the first degree on the information charging him with the same crime, and for that reason was incompetent as a witness. In support of this contention we are cited to the case of State v. Miller, 100 Mo. 606. That case, however, is no authority for the proposition that an accomplice is incompetent to testify against another charged with the same crime. It was only held in that case by Judge Sheb-wood that when an accomplice made an agreement
But this proposition, it would seem, is set at rest by our own statute, section 4680, Revised Statutes 1899, which provides: “Any person who has been convicted of a criminal offense is, notwithstanding, a competent witness.” In the case of State v. Minor, 117 Mo. 302, this court held that an accomplice jointly indicted with the defendant on trial was, after his own conviction, a competent witness for the State against his co-defendant on trial. The mere fact, as was said in State v. Riney, that the witness expected a lighter sentence for his own confessed complicity in the crime because he had become a witness for the State, did not affect his
4. It is further urged as a ground for reversing the judgment that the circuit court erred in permitting witnesses to testify as to the acts and declarations of the witness Frank Hottman after the consummation of the crime. The law is well established, of course, that the declarations of confederates against each other when the enterprise is at an end, whether by accomplishment or abandonment, are incompetent to affect their co-conspirators, but it is equally well established by decisions of this court that an appellate court will not pass upon the admissibility of evidence when the record shows that it was received without objection. [State v. McCollum, 119 Mo. 1. c. 474; State v. Lett, 85 Mo. 52; State v. Foster, 115 Mo. 448.] In their brief and argument learned counsel for the defendant do not point out what witness or witnesses were allowed to testify to acts and declarations of Hottman after the consummation of the crime, but counsel in their brief and argument say in support of this point, that, the court erred in permitting Hottman to testify to his acts and declarations after the consummation of the crime. An examination of the testimony of Hottman discloses that after he had testified to the participation of himself and the defendant in the murder of Clarence Myers, the husband of the defendant, he detailed conversations with the defendant in which she stated to him that she was sorry she had led him into the crime and would meet him in the near future. And then detailed his movements in going to St. Joseph and thence to "Walla Walla in the State of Washington, and while at Walla Walla he was arrested by officer Dave Oldham, a member of the Kansas City police force, and that he made a statement of his connection with the affair to the officer at Walla Walla. No objections were interposed by counsel for the defendant to any of these
As already stated, the witness Hottman was cross-examined by the defendant’s counsel as to this confession made at Walla Walla, and parts of the confession were read to the jury by counsel for the defendant for
5. Again, error is predicated on the admission in evidence of a letter and paper received by the witness, Mrs. Hottman, from Mary Shulz, on the ground that the said letter and paper was not shown to have been written by the defendant, and the matter therein being otherwise immaterial and irrelevant. The writing and the letter alluded to in this exception are marked “Ex-
6. Another ground of error assigned by the defendant is that the court refused to grant a new trial for the reason that it became a question in the trial of the case as to whether or not certain letters and papers were in the handwriting of the defendant and one of the jurors testified on his voir dire that he could not read or write. This juror was Lafayette Thomas. He stated on his voir dire that he was no scholar; that he could only write his own name. He was not challenged by the defendant. This assignment of error is based upon section 4679, Revised Statutes 1899, which provides: “Comparison of a disputed writing with any writing proved to the satisfaction of the judge to be genuine shall be permitted to he made.by witnesses, and such writings and the evidence of witnesses respecting the same may be submitted to the court and jury as evidence of the genuineness or otherwise of the writing in dispute.” And we are cited to the case of the State v. Thompson, 141 Mo. 408, construing that section, The
7. The information itself is assailed as insufficient on the ground that the assault was alleged to have been made with a deadly weapon, a certain club or bludgeon, a certain razor, and a certain pair of scissors, it not being stated in the information which of said weapons was the deadly weapon with which the murder was committed. In answer to this contention, it suffices to say, in the first place, that it was not at all necessary to allege in the information that the weapon with which the assault was made was a deadly weapon. This was decided in State v. McDaniel, 94 Mo. 301; State v. Hyland, 144 Mo. 302; State v. Bowles, 146 Mo. 6; 2 Bishop’s Crim. Proc., sec. 514; Jeffries v. Com., 84 Ky. 237. As to the other contention, that it was not stated with which of the deadly weapons the crime was committed, the charge is that it was committed with all of them, and it is well settled in this State that an assault may be charged to have been with different kinds of weapons. [State v. McDonald, 67 Mo. 13; State v. Blan, 69 Mo. 1. c. 319.]
8. Among other objections- to the testimony, there is an assignment of error that the court improperly permitted the witness Stohl to testify that he saw the defendant and Prank Hottman together at Higginsville after the killing of Clarence Myers. An investigation of the record on this point discloses that the witness without objection testified to having seen the defendant get off of the train about 8 o’clock one night, shortly
9. It is also complained that the court erred in permitting the witness Nettie Hottman to answer the question, “How often did she write to him?” meaning Frank Hottman. To this question the witness answered, “Well, she wrote to him a good deal, I do not know.” No objection was made to the question itself, but after it was answered, counsel for the defendant moved the court to strike out the answer for the reason that it was a mere conclusion of the witness and not a statement of the facts, and this the court declined to do. We think there was no merit in the motion; it was a statement of fact to the best knowledge of the defendant. It was not necessary that she should specify the exact number of letters, or that she should be expected to-be able to state the particular number.
Another question objected to was, “How long after Clarence was killed was it before you burned up the letters of this defendant?” To understand the objection to this question it should be considered that the prosecuting attorney was endeavoring at that time to show hat the witness Nettie Hottman was familiar with the handwriting of the defendant and had corresponded
Defendant also complained that the court permitted the witness to testify that the defendant did not attend her husband’s funeral. The conduct of the defendant in that regard was a circumstance for the consideration of the jury, and at any rate the admission of the evidence constitutes no reversible error.
10. Again, it is insisted that the court erred in permitting Frank Hottman to testify what wages he got at the Confederate Home. As to this question no objection was made until after the question had been answered, and then only that it was incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. No motion was made to strike out the answer, and at any rate there is no merit in the point.
Objections were likewise made to the question to Frank Hottman, why he came to Kansas City, and if the defendant had written him to come. The theory of the State throughout the cause was that a conspiracy had been entered into between the defendant and Frank
11. It is now urged, for the first time, that the call for a special term of the court at which the defendant was tried was not in compliance with section 1606, Revised Statutes 1899, which provides: “"Whenever any person charged with an offense shall be confined in jail two months before the regular term of court, in- which he is to be tried, the jailor shall, without delay, inform the judge of such court thereof, who, if he shall be satisfied that a trial of such persons so confined can be had thereat, and the public good require, shall call a special term of the court for the trial of such prisoner.” The record recites that on the 27th of April, 1905, the clerk of the circuit court of Clay county received from the judge of the 7th judicial circuit of the State of Missouri, and ex-officio judge of the circuit court of Clay county, the following order: “Having been notified on the 3rd day of April, 1905, by Andrew P. Wymore, sheriff of said county of Clay, and keeper of the common jail of said county, as provided by section 1606, Revised Statutes of Missouri of 1899, that one Maggie Myers alias Aggie Myers, charged with murder in the first degree, is in his custody and confined in the said jail awaiting trial and the undersigned judge of said court being satisfied that said Maggie Myers alias Aggie Myers can be tried thereat and that the public good requires it, it is therefore ordered by the undersigned judge of said court that a special term of the circuit court of said Clay county, Missouri, be begun and held in the city of Liberty in said Clay county, on Monday, 5th day of June, 1905, at 9 o’clock a. m., for the trial of said Maggie Myers alias Aggie Myers. And it is further ordered that the clerk of the circuit-court
As already recited in the statement of this cause, the prosecuting attorney of Jackson county began this prosecution by filing the information in this cause in the criminal court of Jackson county at Kansas City, and the defendant was duly arraigned and pleaded not guilty in said Jackson County Criminal Court. After-wards upon the application of the defendant and on the 22nd day of March, 1905, the criminal court of Jackson county granted a change of venue to Clay county, Missouri, and directed a copy of the record to be served on the circuit court of Clay county, and ordered that the marshal of Jackson county remove the body of the defendant Maggie Myers to the jail of Clay county, Missouri, and deliver her into the custody of the sheriff of Clay county, Missouri. The ground upon which the call for the special term of the court of Clay county, at which defendant was tried, is now challenged, is that
12. In her supplemental brief, the defendant challenges the third instruction given by the court. That instruction is as follows:
“The court instructs the jury that he who wilfully, that is, intentionally, uses upon another at some vital part a deadly weapon, such as a club or bludgeon, razor or scissors, must in the absence of qualifying facts, be presumed to know that the effect is likely to be death, and knowing this, must be presumed to intend the death, which is the probable and ordinary consequence of such an act, and if such deadly weapon is used without just cause or provocation, he must be presumed to do it wickedly or from a bad heart. If, therefore, the jury believe from the evidence that defendant, either acting alone or acting in concert with another, took the life of Clarence Myers by beating, bruising, cutting, stabbing and wounding* him in a vital part with a club or bludgeon, razor or scissors, and that such club or bludgeon, razor or scissors was a deadly weapon, with a manifest design to use stich weapon upon him, and with sufficient time to deliberate and fully form the conscious purpose to kill, without sufficient reason or cause or provocation, then such killing is murder in the first degree; and while it devolves upon the State to prove willfulness, deliberation, premeditation and malice aforethought, all of which are necessary to constitute murder in the first degree, yet these need not be proven by direct evidence, but may be deduced from all the facts and circumstances attending the killing, and if. the jury can satisfactorily and reasonably infer their existence from all the evidence, they will be warranted in finding* the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree.”
In connection with the giving of this instruction, the court gave instructions 1 and 2, which required the jury to find that at the county of Jackson and State of
There is no merit in the objection to the 3rd instruction that the court assumed that the weapons were deadly. It is plain from all the instructions that the court submitted to the jury the question whether they were deadly weapons. The instruction in other respects is a correct declaration of the law as to what constitutes murder in the first degree. It has received the approval of this court substantially in this form for many years. [State v. Lane, 64 Mo. 319; State v. Hudspeth, 150 Mo. 12, 159 Mo. 178; State v. Cushenberry, 157 Mo. 168; State v. Harrod, 102 Mo. 590; State v. Frazier, 137 Mo. 317.]
We have thus carefully investigated all the alleged errors pointed out by the defendant’s counsel in their briefs and oral arguments, and in our opinion neither singly nor collectively do they afford any sufficient reason for reversing the judgment of the circuit court. The case is the most serious that can ever be submitted to a human tribunal. The issue involves the life of a human being, and impressed with this fact, we have endeavored to give the ease our most careful consideration. It is not suggested that the evidence if believed