Barnes v. Commonwealth

MILLIKEN, Judge.

The appellant, Chester Barnes, an unmarried man in his fifties, was indicted for murder and was convicted of voluntary manslaughter — the killing of his brother, Roy Barnes, with a pistol shot. He was sentenced to serve twenty-one years in the penitentiary.

Chester and Roy had been on a rather extensive alcoholic binge before the killing which occurred about two o’clock in the morning, just a short time after Chester had awakened a neighbor in order to offer him a drink, which the neighbor refused. With Roy driving the car, his sixteen-year-old son, Kenneth, next to him, and…