State v. Maynard

The State’s evidence presents these facts:

Johnny Liss Luster and Irene Luster are husband and wife. Mamie Luster is the stepmother of Johnny Liss Luster, and her husband, Sherman Luster, was serving a road sentence on 7 February 1957. Amos Maynard married Mamie Luster’s sister. Monroe Willard was 16 years old, cannot read and write, and had been living at Mamie Luster’s home about three weeks prior to 7 February 1957. He had been convicted twice for breaking and entering. Mamie Luster lived on the Pilot Mountain-Westfield Road about four miles from the home of John Allen Branch.

On the morning…