Phillips v. State

Citations

• 26 Tex. Ct. App. 228
• 9 S.W. 557
• 1888 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 186

Syllabus

<p>1. Murder—Conspiracy—Principal Offenders.—All persons are principals who are guilty of acting together in the commission of an offense, and this includes not only those who are present at the commission of the offense, but those who, though absent, are doing their part in connection with and in furtherance of the common design.</p> <p>2. Same.—It is further provided by statute (Penal Code, art. 76) that “all persons who shall engage in procuring aid, arms, or means of any kind to assist the commission of an offense while others are executing the unlawful act, and all persons who endeavor at the time of the commission of the offense to secure the safety or concealment of the offenders, are principals, and may be convicted and punished as such.”</p> <p>3. Same.—It is also a well settled general rule that when several persons conspire or combine together to commit any unlawful act, each is criminally responsible for the acts of his associates or confederates, committed in furtherance or in prosecution of the common design for which they combine.</p> <p>4. Same—Charge of the Court—Case Stated.—Evidence in this ease tends to show that previous to the homicide the accused repeatedly declared his intention to kill the deceased, and that, on the evening of, but before the killing, be went to the house of deceased and told de. ceased’s family to tell him that he and George Nixon, Aaron Nixon and Bill Evans were coming to his house that night to kill him; that about dark on that night the defendant and the said Nixons and the said Evans met at a certain house where they prepared arms and ammunition, and whence they went in the direction of the house of the deceased; that, just [before the killing, George Nixon called the deceased from his house to the fence, and, while they were talking at the said fence, the defendant and the said Evans and one Buie, each hav- • ing a gun, passed and stopped at a point forty yards distant, to which point the defendant called the deceased,