top of page
CAMILLA GARLAND
Showing until February 11, 2017
Indictment
State
vs.
Camilla Garland
Murder
R. Ruble Prosecutor
Witnesses for the State
Elizabeth Hyder, Sarah Hyder, Martin L. Hartsell, George Harvey, Calvin Hop, A. N. Harris
All sworn and sent to the Grand Jury, June 29th
John H. Crowford Clk [clerk]
Camilla Garland: Exhibitions
Camilla Garland: Mission
State of Tennessee Washington County – Term, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two
The grand jurors for the state being duly summoned, elected, empannelled, sworn and charged to inquire for the body of the county of Washington aforesaid on their oath aforesaid, present that Camilla Garland late of said county spinster, not having the fear of God before her eyes, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil, heretofore to wit on the 24th day of May, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty Two, at to wit in the county aforesaid, with force and arms, in and upon one Wilson Scott in the peace of the state, then and there being, feloniously, wilfully and of her malice aforethought did make an assault, and that the said Camilla Garland, with a certain billet of wood, which she, the said Camilla Garland, in her right hand, then and there had and held, the said Wilson Scott in and upon the head and neck of him the said Wilson Scott then and there feloniously, wilfully and of her malice aforethought did strike and beat, giving to the said Eilson Scott then and there with the said billet of wood in and upon the head and neck of him the said Wilson Scott divers (delivers) mortal blows and bruises of
Camilla Garland: Mission
Which said mortal blows and bruises, he the said Wilson Scott, then and there instantly died and to the jurors aforesaid upon their oath aforesaid, do say, that the said Camilla Garland the said Wilson Scott in manner and form aforesaid unlawfully, feloniously, wilfully and of her malice aforethought did kill and murder in the first degree, contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided to the evil example of all others in like cases offending and against the peace and dignity of the state
And the jurors aforesaid upon their oath aforesaid, do further present that the said Camilla Garland not having the fear of God before her eyes, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil, heretofore to wit on the said twenty-fourth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, at to wit in the county aforesaid, with force and arms in and upon on Wilson Scott, in the peace of the state then and there being, willfully, feloniously and of her malice aforethought, did make an assault and that the said Camilla Garland with a rolling pin, of the value of ten cents which she the said Camilla Garland in her right hand, then and there had and held, the
Camilla Garland: Mission
Said Wilson Scott in and upon the neck and head of him, the said Wilson Scott, then and there wilfully, feloniously, and of her malice aforethought did strike and wound; giving to the said Wilson Scott then and there, with the said rolling pin, in and upon the neck and head of him the said Wilson Scott, divers (delivers) mortal wounds of which said mortal wounds, he the said Wilson Scott, then and there instantly died; and so the jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, do say, that the said Camilla Garland the said Wilson Scott in manner and form aforesaid unlawfully, willfully, feloniously and of her malice aforethought did kill and murder in the first degree; contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided, to the evil example of all others in like cases offending, and against the peace and dignity of the state.
Ja. W. Deaderick
Att. Gen. Pro. Tenn.
nal experience.
J. James W. Campbell clerk of the supreme court of Tennessee at Knoxville, do hereby certify that the foregoing in a full, true and perfect copy of the opinion and judgment of said court in the foregoing cause, remaining of record in my office
Given under my hand and the seal of said court at office in Knoxville, the 25th day of September 1852
James W. Campbell
Clerk of the Supreme Court
Camilla Garland: About Us
Condition at the time of the encounter – and the position which she occupied with reference to the … all tend to impair the force of her testimony as will be noticed more particularly hereafter.
But all considerations affecting her credibility aside, for the present the inquiry is _ was the conviction warranted upon her testimony _ taking it as undoubtedly true _ when viewed in connection with other facts disclosed in the proof. We incline to think not to say the least, we entertain strong doubts.
Before noticing the material facts stated by Mrs. Hyder in her testimony before the jury, and important facts proved by others, it may be proper to premise, that it appears from the proof _ that Scott the deceased was a married man, whose wife and family resided within about a mile of the prisoner. For a period of perhaps more than ten years, there had existed between the prisoner and Scott constant criminal intercourse during which the prisoner gave birth to a daughter by him, now some years of age.
A strong mutual attachment seems to have grown up between them, and their treatment of each other was marked by kindness and affectionate regard, except occasionally during the deceased's fits of intoxications
It appears that shortly before the day on which the deceased came to his death the prisoner had received information that he had laid to get rid of her and had offered Whitesides a horse to take her out of the country. Mrs. Hyder states, that on the day Scott has killed the prisoner- who was her sister – came to her house and inquired for Scott. The witness replied that he had gone up the road a short time before. Prisoner said she intended to give him a good whipping. Scott returned in about an hour and when the prisoner saw him returning she went into an adjoining room and asked
Camilla Garland: Mission
Witness to introduce a conversation with Scott, when he came in, about her. Accordingly, the witness asked Scott about his having offered Whitesides a horse to take the prisoner out of the country and he replied that he had offered him a horse to do so. After some further conversation, which witness does not detail, Scott went into a back shed, where liquor was kept, drew a glass of Whiskey, drank part of it and at the glass on a bureau that stood by the side of the room door into which the prisoner had gone. Witness then went into the room where the prisoner was, and Scott followed her to the door and placed his hands on each side of the door, which had no shutter. As soon as the prisoner saw that Scott had discovered her, she advanced towards him with her hands raised but open as if to attack him and exclaimed: “you d_d old son of a bitch.”
Scot said_ Why Camilla!
And threw up his open hands, as if to fend off the blows, and backed: They then grappled with each other. The witness was standing behind the prisoner when she and Scott first met, and could not see which caught first. While struggling with each other they got by the side of a table on the left side of the door opening into the room into which the prisoner had gone on which was lying a rolling pin belonging to witness, made of yellow poplar some fifteen inches long but very light. The prisoner caught the rolling pin and struck Scott several blows within, about the head and neck – she struck fast and gave perhaps ten or fifteen blows, Scott had caught up a chair in his hands and tried to keep off her blows with it. He held it with the back towards the prisoner, made no effort to strike her either with his hands or with the chair, that witness saw and caught up the chair after prisoner struck him with the rolling-pin the chair dropped from his hands and he fell. The prisoner is a very stout
Camilla Garland: Mission
Woman, stouter than Scott who had been complaining of sometimes when the deceases fell the prisoner cried out
“Lord have mercy. I believe I have killed him.”
She raised up his head and shook him and seemed very much distressed: and when she saw that he was dead she commenced crying and screaming and wringing her hands this witness proves that the prisoner during her struggle with the deceased received a very severe cut over one of her eyes and that she was bruised both above and below the eye and can't say that the lick was not struck by Scott but did not see him either strike or choke her: and thinks if he had done either after they came together she would have seen it But in another part of her testimony she says
“I was behind her (the prisoner) and could not see Scott when they were grappling with each other”
On cross-examination, the witness admitted, that she had been on ill terms with the prisoner for years and had not talked with her in twelve months before the day on which Scott was killed. She also stated that Scott came to her house very often to get liquor. She also admitted that for a dollar promised her by Scott a few nights before his death a few nights before his death, she had consented to meet him at a grocery not far from her house, and sleep with him all night, while her husband was away from home fishing and that she went to the Grocery, but found him asleep and very drunk and that she took his purse and pocketbook and gave them to her husband when he comes home, and told it as a joke, and that her children were with her.
She further stated that she had not drunk a drop of liquor on the day Scott was killed.
Isaac Hartsell proves that he was at Hyder’s a few minutes after Scott was killed – describes the rolling-pin as 8 or 10 inches long 3 or 2 ½ inches through, and as weighing perhaps less than one pound. He was well
Camilla Garland: Mission
Acquainted with the above-named witness Mrs. Hyder – that she had been drinking and from her breath and conduct had no doubt but that she felt the effect of liquor at the time he got to the house but that she was not so much intoxicated as not to know what she was about.
Russel Garland and Rosannah Bean the former the son and later the mother of the prisoner prove that the bone above the prisoner's eye was, and still remains indented by the blow received. The first named witness also states, that on the next morning after Scott was killed, he saw marks on both sides of the prisoner's neck. The last-named witness states that two weeks after Scott’s death, she saw marks on the prisoner’s throat which looked blue.
Johnathan Wright proves that on the day Scott was killed he saw several scratches on the prisoner's neck.
Other matters disclosed in the evidence we pass by as unimportant to be noticed in the view which we have taken of the case and proceed to inquire whether upon the foregoing facts the crime of murder in the second degree or murder at common law is sufficiently established.
The conviction supported must be rested alone upon the testimony of Mrs. Hyder and as already remarked there are circumstances in the case that cannot but tend to weaken the force of her evidence.
The prisoner's state of ill-feeling of long-standing between the witness and the prisoner the high probability of the truth of suggestion dimly shadowed forth in the proof that the witness by her acts had succeeded in supplanting the prisoner in the affections of the deceased and had herself become or at least endeavored to become his paramour her situation at the time as proved by other testimony in contradiction of her positive declaration being in the state of partial
Camilla Garland: Mission
bottom of page