A Murder in the Ministry

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Well ok, not really, this is just sort of a random “pop-in.” Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well. I was searching Lexis recently and came across this amusing JW case and thought I would share it with you all.

The below is not presented in any way to disparage modern JWs but is only an interesting anachronistic event that is probably not very well known. What I find most interesting about this case was that the defendant was officially represented by the Society.

For those who don’t want to read the whole case I will sum it up more briefly than the official summary.

A “pioneer” took a gun with him into service and when he and his partner were threatened by the “householder,” the brother shot him three times. He said it was self-defense but he was convicted of murder and he lost his appeal.

The case follows for your interest……

1941 Me. LEXIS 47, ***
STATE OF MAINE vs. ARTHUR F. COX.

[NO NUMBER IN ORIGINAL]

SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OF MAINE, CUMBERLAND

138 Me. 151; 23 A.2d 634; 1941 Me. LEXIS 47

December 16, 1941, Decided

PRIOR HISTORY: [***1] ON APPEAL AND EXCEPTIONS BY THE RESPONDENT.

The respondent Cox was convicted of murder. Cox was a member of the sect known as Jehovah's Witnesses. He and a fellow member, one Carr, went to North Windham and stopped in front of the garage of E. Dean Pray. Carr entered the garage and proposed to Pray that he, Carr, play a phonographic record containing a "message" put out by Jehovah's Witnesses. Pray drove Carr out of the garage and came toward Cox. While still on Pray's premises Cox killed Pray. Cox admitted that he killed Pray, but claimed that the killing was done in self-defense and defense of Carr. The sole question involved was whether, in view of all the testimony, which was conflicting, the jury was warranted in finding that Cox committed the homicide with malice aforethought, express or implied. The case fully appears in the opinion.

Exceptions overruled. Appeal dismissed. Motion for new trial denied. Judgment for the State. Case remanded for sentence.

DISPOSITION: Exceptions overruled. Appeal dismissed. Motion for new trial denied. Judgment for State. Case remanded for sentence.

COUNSEL: Frank I. Cowan, Attorney General,

Albert Knudsen, County Attorney of Cumberland County,

[***2] Richard S. Chapman, Assistant County Attorney of Cumberland County, for the State.

Clarence Scott, of Old Town,

Charles W. Smith, of Biddeford,

Hayden Covington, of Brooklyn, New York, for respondent.

JUDGES: SITTING: STURGIS, C. J., THAXTER, HUDSON, MANSER, WORSTER, MURCHIE, JJ.

OPINION BY: WORSTER

OPINION

[*154] [**637] WORSTER, J. On appeal and exceptions.

At the September Term 1940, of the Superior Court held at Portland, in our County of Cumberland, the respondent, Arthur F. Cox, was indicted, tried and found guilty of the murder of E. Dean Pray, at Windham, Maine, on August 20, 1940. The case is brought here on appeal from the refusal of the presiding justice to grant the respondent's motion for a new trial, and on exceptions.

[*155] THE APPEAL.

On the appeal, the question is whether, in view of all the testimony in the case, the jury were warranted in believing beyond a reasonable doubt, and therefore in finding, that the defendant committed the homicide with malice aforethought, express or implied.

The respondent admitted at the trial that he fired at Pray the shots which caused his death, [***3] but claimed that they were fired without malice aforethought, in self-defense, and in defense of his companion, Kenneth A. Carr.

The jury might have found, from the evidence, that Arthur F. Cox was forty-nine years old, five feet and seven inches tall, and weighed about one hundred twenty-four pounds; that he had worked as a machinist and toolmaker in various parts of the United States; that he belonged to a sect called Jehovah's Witnesses, and that, from 1907 until he came to Portland in [**638] 1940, he devoted his spare time to doing what is called by the members of the sect "witness" work. This work is done, in part at least, by the witness going from door to door in a community, with a phonograph and records, and a bag containing booklets and perhaps other literature pertaining to the work of that sect. A record bearing what is called a message is played on the phonograph to those who will listen to it, and booklets and literature are distributed to those who will receive them. On arrival in Portland during the first part of August, 1940, he became connected with the local company of Jehovah's Witnesses at that place, and thereafterwards, up to the time Mr. Pray was shot [***4] on August 20, Cox devoted his whole time to the work carried on by that sect, of which he says he was an ordained minister, with credentials to that effect, issued to him by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, by J. F. Rutherford, President.

Testimony tends to show that at about 8:30 or 9 o'clock in the morning of August 20, Cox left the headquarters of the local company of Jehovah's Witnesses, at 1 Myrtle Street [*156] in Portland, in company with Kenneth Carr and a woman named Verle Adams Garfein, for that part of Windham known as North Windham, to there do the work carried on by Jehovah's Witnesses. They traveled in Cox' car, which he drove. Each of them had a phonograph and at least one record, and a bag containing booklets and literature, and Cox had a map of the territory to be worked by them that day, which had been loaned to him by the person in charge at the headquarters at Portland. Cox also had in his bookbag a revolver (hereinafter sometimes referred to as a gun) which he had obtained during the previous month, and which because, he said, of an assault made on him in Portland, he had been carrying with him for about two weeks, for protective purposes.

Cox states [***5] that during the forenoon of August 20, while in a store in North Windham, he was told to get out of town in ten minutes. He then went back to a nearby information booth, where he had called earlier in the day, to see Mrs. Robbins, who was in charge of the booth, because, he said, "I had learned that there was a good deal of hostility there, and I wanted to know who could be depended upon to maintain the law and order there in case any disturbance arose for any reason." He did not find her until about two o'clock that afternoon, when she gave him the names of certain persons, including said Pray, who was then a deputy sheriff. Cox testified that at that time he had no knowledge that Pray had previously assaulted another Jehovah's Witness, or that one of them had been evicted by Pray by force, although Cox there learned from Mrs. Robbins that Pray had told them to get out of town. Cox did not go to see Pray, because he had heard that he was unfriendly, and since they were going down that way he knew that they would eventually call on him anyway.

According to Mrs. Robbins, Cox was nervous and perturbed when she saw him the second time. He was upset over something. He wasn't pleasant [***6] but he wasn't viciously angry; he wanted to see somebody in a hurry, somebody who had some [*157] authority. She further testified, when questioned, as follows:
"Q. Did he say anything when you told him not to go down there, not to stay in town, not to go down to Pray's?

A. He said if he started anything he could take care of him, because he had been ordered out of other towns and he knew how to take care of himself."

Cox, evidently referring to the threat he had received while in the store, testified that he told her "that we were going to finish this town in spite of some threats that had been made us."

Evidence indicates that after this conversation with Mrs. Robbins, Cox came out and got into his automobile, where Miss Garfein and Carr were waiting for him, drove a short distance in the direction of Portland, turned around, came back, and parked a little northerly of the booth, on the same side of the road. They then got out, and Miss Garfein took the easterly side of the road, while Cox and Carr crossed the road to make calls on the westerly side. Cox called at the Varney house, and Carr called at the home of Pray, which was the dwelling next northerly. Neither [***7] found anyone at home, and, coming from those houses, they met and walked along together, going northerly on the path which served as a sidewalk until they arrived at some point in front of Pray's garage, where Carr turned off to enter the garage. According to one witness, they parted half way between the pumps and the sign post. And it elsewhere appears that the easterly post, supporting the sign "Pray's [**639] Garage" is thirty feet and seven inches northerly of the center of the so-called "island" on which the pumps stood. Cox testified that he proceeded by the sign post a few steps and waited to see if Carr would get a reception.

According to the plan drawn to scale, which was used at the trial, the center of the pump island is about thirteen feet and nine inches westerly of an extension of the westerly line of the westerly graveled shoulder of the road. The southerly line of [*158] the garage projected to the road would pass a little to the north of that island, the center of which is twenty-nine feet and five inches easterly of an extension of the easterly line of the garage.

This garage is irregular in shape, and is located on the same side of the road as the Pray [***8] house, and next northerly thereof. Its southerly line is about fifty feet long, and the end next to the street is about twenty feet wide.

It appears from the record that Carr entered the garage and proceeded toward the Varney automobile, which was standing in the southwesterly corner thereof, where it was being repaired. Pray was working underneath it and Varney was leaning in, assisting him. At the same time, Clyde M. Elder, an employee of Pray, was working underneath the Ward car, which was also standing in the rear of the garage, but northerly of the Varney car. Ward was standing near Elder. As Carr approached the Varney automobile, he had the phonograph on his arm, and said to Pray, "How do you do? I have a message here. Would you like to hear it?" Pray replied, "Go on. Get to hell out of here."

The respondent and his witness Carr do not agree with the witnesses for the State as to what then happened, especially as to when or where Pray got the tire iron, or as to the position, attitude and conduct of the parties at the time of the shooting and immediately before.

According to Carr's testimony, he turned to walk out when told to go. As he turned, Pray picked up a tire iron and [***9] when Carr had walked about fifteen feet, came up and put his hands on Carr's back, shoved him, and he went out. Pray pushed him four or five steps, gave him a shove and hit him with something. As Carr was going forward, he straightened up and swung around to defend himself. Pray was then about five feet behind him, with the tire iron raised, and said "he was going to knock our damned heads off." Just then Carr heard three or four shots and Pray started for the corner of the house, stumbling. When Carr straightened up he saw Cox standing [*159] a little to his left and probably five or six feet from him. Pray was about six feet tall, and probably weighed one hundred eighty or one hundred ninety pounds, was swearing, raging mad, and close enough to strike Carr, but not to his knowledge within striking distance of Cox at any time that day.

According to testimony of Cox, he was standing between the road and a line drawn from the pumps through the easterly sign post, waiting to see if Carr would get a "reception." He saw Carr enter the garage and go to the rear of the building, and heard him say something. A man now known to have been Pray got out from underneath an automobile and [***10] said, "You can get to hell out of here." With a bar in his hand, Pray drove Carr out of the garage, and, said Cox, "it seemed as he got out to the door the man struck at him and hit him on the back or side here somewhere." When Cox saw Carr coming out of the garage, he thought Carr was in great danger and set the phonograph on the ground; both hands were free to operate the gun. Upon arriving at the door, Pray saw Cox, and said, "You get out of here, too," desisted in his attack on Carr, and in a white rage, with the tire iron in his hand, came on a tangent toward Cox just a second or two before Carr reached the pumps. When Pray, his arm upraised with the bar in his hand, had taken about four steps, Cox saw there was going to be danger, and was feeling in his bag. Pray said, "What have you got in that bag? . . .Give me that"; Cox said "Stand back" and when Pray was about six feet from him and within striking distance of Carr, Cox, fearing he would be killed or injured with the bar, fired the first shot point-blank at Pray, who did not take another step toward Cox but stood there with the bar in his hand. Cox said, "he was stunned, I guess, after the first shot." He stated that his [***11] "purpose was to make a thorough job of repelling," and he did not know the effectiveness of the gun he was using, so he fired two more shots because it appeared to him that it was necessary. Cox said, "There was danger. He had the bar up there in his hands" and also said he (Pray) "might have secured a weapon in a very short time [*160] to destroy all three of us." At the time Cox fired he had not stepped [**640] back or started to leave. Cox said, after the shots were fired "I noticed that Pray was thoroughly repelled and there was no danger there, so I got down toward the car as rapidly as I could." Cox also testified that he did not go down to North Windham that day "asking for trouble"; that he had no ill-feeling or hatred toward Pray or anybody there.

The witnesses for the State give a different version of what happened, in some important particulars.

Francis H. Brown was seated about five feet inside the garage door when Carr entered, Brown testified that he saw nothing in Pray's hands when Carr was going out; that Pray put his hands--Brown thought both hands--on Carr's shoulders, and pushed him out the door; that when Carr got out to the pumps Pray told Cox and Carr [***12] to get out of there, and when neither moved, said "I will see about it," turned around, stepped three or four steps, picked up a tire iron inside of the garage and went just outside the door five or six feet, stopped, and said to Cox "What have you got in that bag there?" When Cox pulled out the gun Pray started forward, took four or five steps, and Cox shot him. Brown said it was hard to tell how many shots were fired--four or five--and that while Cox was shooting, Pray "turned around, kind of staggering and started for the front of his house."

Ellen Harriett Robbins, keeper of the information booth, anticipating there would be trouble, followed Cox and Carr at a distance. She testified that when Carr came out of the yard in a hurry, Cox took a few steps toward him, Carr turned around, and Cox started to shoot. At that time she had not seen Pray, because her line of vision was cut off by the porch or a part of the Pray house. From observations subsequently made, she testified that at the time of the shooting she could see, from the place where she was standing, ten feet westerly of the pumps, so if she could not then see Pray, he could not have been as near to Cox and Carr at the [***13] time of the shooting, as they testified he was.

[*161] She further testified the first time she saw Pray, he came out around the side of his house, and the next time she saw him he was on the ground where he had fallen.

Gertrude Ruth Pray, widow of the deceased, was sitting in an automobile parked northerly of the Pray house, between it and the garage. She testified that although she saw Carr enter the garage she did not see him come out, but saw him crossing the dooryard, walking rapidly toward Cox; they came together. Cox was in line of the pumps and sign post. Cox put his hand in his bag at the same time she saw Pray, who had taken about three steps outside the door and stopped. She did not hear anything said between them. Cox pulled the gun out of the bag, pointed it at Pray, and fired three or four shots. Pray turned partly around, dropped something, and ran toward the house, and when he got in front of the automobile in which she was sitting, she lost sight of him. She did not see Pray strike or attempt to strike anyone in that dooryard.

Clyde M. Elder testified that when he looked out from underneath the Ward automobile, where he was working when Carr entered the garage, [***14] he first saw Pray and Carr, together, in the garage, about eight or ten feet behind the Varney car, and approximately twenty-three or twenty-five feet from the the front door, for which they were headed. Carr was ahead and Pray closely following. Elder did not then see anything in Pray's hand, that he can remember. He did not see them when they reached the door. When Elder got within possibly six feet of the door, Cox was pretty well out by the road, probably in line with the pumps and the post that holds the sign. Pray was practically in the center of the dooryard, at a point marked on the plan which, according to plan measurements, is about thirteen feet and nine inches from the door. Elder stated that he couldn't tell whether Pray had anything in his hand at that time or not; after that Pray might have taken one step, but not more than two. As Elder walked out, Cox and Pray remained in the position just indicated. Elder heard Pray say [*162] "And you get out of here, too. What have you got in that bag?" Then the firing began; he saw Cox fire several shots at Pray. Elder was then probably two steps or two and a half steps outside the garage. He stopped suddenly. Pray dropped [***15] back--stated in cross examination "a step or two" and in direct examination "three or four steps"--turned toward Elder, and was so near that Elder could probably have touched him if he had put out his hand. Elder ran toward a Ford automobile and he doesn't know in which direction Pray went but he staggered toward an automobile. He does not know where Carr was at the time of the shooting.

[**641] Perley W. Varney, who, with Pray, was working on an automobile when Carr entered the garage, testified he saw Pray pushing Carr by the shoulders while in the garage; that Pray did not have anything in his hands; that he saw Pray at the door, still walking; Carr was then ahead of him in the yard. When Varney got to the door, Pray was a few steps, say about ten feet, outside, standing still. He then had a tire iron in his hand, but Varney did not see him when he picked it up. At the same time, Varney places Carr somewhere near the pumps. When Pray was shot, he swung around, came toward Varney, who was standing about five feet from the southerly wall of the garage, and dropped the tire iron about ten feet from the door. Varney picked it up and ran after Cox and Carr; he caught up with them [***16] at the Cox car.

According to the testimony of both Elder and Varney, Pray, although loud and forceful, was not angry.

Deputy Sheriff McDonald testified that when he received the revolver from Varney, he examined it and found four shells had been fired and three had not.

Carr told Dr. Bickmore that evening that he had been hit with a piece of iron, but on examination the doctor found no marks or discolorations.

According to Carr's own testimony, he himself did not look for any marks, and does not know whether there were any or not.

[*163] Without further reviewing the testimony, which is voluminous, suffice it to say that a careful examination of the record discloses evidence from which the jury might have found that both Cox and Carr, at and immediately before the time of the shooting of Pray, were on his premises; that Pray had ordered both of them to leave; and that although they had had reasonable opportunity to do so without danger to themselves before Pray was shot, they had not done so; and that, at the time of the shooting, neither of them had the legal right to be on said premises; that whether they then had the legal right to be on the premises or not, it must have [***17] been reasonably apparent to Cox himself that he could have retreated without any increased danger to either himself or Carr before shooting Pray; that at the time of the shooting, Cox had no reasonable ground to believe that either he or Carr was in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm; and that, at the time the first shot was fired, Pray was in the neighborhood of fifteen or sixteen feet from Cox, and Carr was even farther away from Pray.

It is elementary law that questions of fact, including the question whether or not a homicide was justified under a plea of self-defense, and the question of deliberation and premeditation are for the jury, under appropriate instructions from the court.

It is also for the jury to determine what part of the evidence presented at the trial was credible and worthy of belief, as well as the relative weight of the testimony.

Here we find that under proper instructions given by the court, the jury were warranted in finding that the respondent wilfully and deliberately killed Pray, with malice aforethought, which [***18] was fully and correctly explained to the jury, and so we would not be warranted in disturbing their verdict.
[Omitted a large chunk to see if I can post this now]

A further consideration of the case is unnecessary. After examining all of the exceptions, including those not specifically covered in the respondent's brief, we find none that should be sustained. The mandate is Exceptions overruled.

Appeal dismissed.

Motion for new trial denied.

Judgment for the State.

Case remanded for sentence.

A Murder in the Ministry

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