Amerson v. State

PRICE, Presiding Judge.

The indictment charged murder in the first degree. Appellant was convicted of the offense of murder in the second degree. His punishment was fixed at imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of twenty years.

Defendant, a Negro man, admitted he shot and killed Mattie Sanders, a young Negro girl, with a twelve gauge shotgun. The state’s evidence was that the larger part of her skull was shot away. Defendant testified that he and one Celestine Duke were living together and the dead girl had lived with them since she was eleven years of age.

Defendant testified that on the…