White v. Commonwealth
White v. Commonwealth
Opinion of the Court
Affirming.
Appellant was indicted.for the willful murder of
On the day of the killing, July 30, 1949, about 5:30 p. m., deceased, Charles Davis, and his companion, Elmo Adams, were crossing the concrete railroad bridge from Lothair over to the Black Gold mining camp. Near the eenter of the bridge they met appellant Anee White, his father Jacie White, his brother-in-law Ed Caudill, and a friend Elmer Bellamy, all crossing the bridge from the opposite direction, that is, going toward Lothair from the Black Gold camp. Deceased and Adams were unarmed and each was carrying a shopping bag containing some groceries and other things. As the result of what transpired when they met, Charles Davis was killed, and Elmo Adams was wounded by a shot, all admittedly fired by appellant.
There is little conflict in the evidence except as to two or three vital points which will be pointed out. The evidence for both the Commonwealth and the defense agrees that there was an exchange of words between deceased and appellant’s father, Jacie White, when they met on the bridge; that after the exchange of these words, deceased knocked Jacie down and when he did so appellant shot deceased twice with a .38 automatic, killing Mm instantly. Commonwealth’s evidence tends to show that appellant fired the shots immediately after Ms father was knocked down while appellant’s evidence shows he fired the shot only after deceased had his foot drawn back to kick Jacie wMch might have resulted in Ms possible death from being kicked off the bridge to the water below, a distance of about 30 feet. There was conflict in the testimony as to where Jacie was lying when he fell; that of the Commonwealth showing that he fell between the rails or on one of the rails near the center of the bridge which was 13 feet wide. The evidence for appellant shows Jacie fell near the edge of the bridge, which had no guard rails, with part of his body hanging over the edge. There was also conflict in the evidence as to the words that passed between Jacie
We thus have conflicting testimony as to how the argument started and whether or not there was such apparent danger to the life of Jacie White as justified his son, appellant, in killing deceased to save his father’s life. If Jacie was simply knocked down near the center of the bridge, as the Commonwealth’s evidence indicates, there was no justification for appellant’s killing his assailant. If he was near or partly over the edge of the bridge and deceased was about to kick him off to his possible death, as appellant’s evidence indicates, there might have been justification for his killing deceased. This presents a factual question which was for the jury to decide. The right to defend his father under these circumstances was as great as the right to defend himself- and that question was submitted to the jury in a separate instruction which is not complained of and the jury evidently believed the testimony of the Commonwealth’s witnesses rather than those of the defendant.
The rule in cases of this character is that where there is no denial of the firing of the fatal shot, as is true here, the question for the jury is whether or not the one charged committed the act in good faith in self defense. Barker v. Commonwealth, 304 Ky. 13, 199 S.
We have read and carefully considered all the evidence and, without further detailing it, we think it was sufficient to take the case to the jury and that the court did not err in refusing to peremptorily instruct the jury to find appellant not guilty. Nor can we say, after consideration of all the evidence, that the verdict was against the law and the evidence and was the result of passion and prejudice.
Wherefore the judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.