147 Ga. 53 | Ga. | 1917
The defendant was convicted of the murder of Minnon Edwards. The evidence discloses that the defendant came to his home late at night and found the decedent, whose age is given by the witnesses as twenty or twenty-five years, sitting on the steps of the house, talking with his stepdaughter. The stepdaughter was the only eye-witness to the killing; and she testified that the defendant immediately began to curse the decedent, applying vile epithets, and shot him twice with 'a pistol. The ■ occupants of the house, the wife of the defendant and her sister, were aroused, and when they came out the decedent was dead. The defendant, by threats of violence, compelled the women to assist him in burying the body of the decedent. A few days thereafter the body was discovered. Tracks wére seen leading to and from the place of interment and the defendant’s house. In his statement to. the jury the defendant said he had warned the decedent to stay away from his house, as his presence would cause quarrels between him and his wife. On the night of the homicide he found the decedent in the house, and as he ran out of the house the defendant “didn’t, know "what he had. I said, ‘What are you doing?’ and he reached out, and I shot him.” Defendant further stated that the body was buried at the instance of the women. In rebuttal of the statement a witness testified that at the coroner’s inquest the defendant denied killing the decedent, but that afterwards he said that when he got to his house he fired off his pistol with no intention of shooting anybody, and did not know that he had killed the decedent until informed by one of the women.
Judgment affirmed.