Crouchett v. State

The offense is murder; punishment fixed at confinement in the penitentiary for life. Appellant shot and killed Loretta Babino, the sister of the appellant’s wife.

Mary Crouchett, the appellant’s 15 year-old daughter, testified in substance that she saw the tragedy. According to her evidence, the appellant, at his home about half an hour before the homicide, said he wanted to beat out the brains of the deceased with a stick. He went in search of the deceased, and upon his return his daughter remonstrated with him. He struck his daughter, who fled to the house of a neighbor, but was brought back…