Jones v. State

Appellant, Willie D. Jones, was convicted in the Circuit Court of DeSoto County, for the murder of George Fritz, and sentenced to death.

I

Fritz, a seventy-six year old, unmarried white man, operated a small grocery and general merchandise store and filling station near the Mississippi-Tennessee state line, in DeSoto County, Mississippi, on U. S. Highway 61. On the morning of April 1, 1955, he was killed by being struck on the head with some kind of blunt instrument, between the hours of 7 and 7:30 a.m. He lived in the back of the store. Mattie Evans lived one-half mile from the store, and went…