The People v. Rivers

The defendants, Evelyn Rivers, age 19 years, and Helen Rivers, age 17 years, together with two other girls, Edwina Howard, age 19 years, and Wilma Howard, age 14 years, were indicted in the criminal court of Cook County on a charge of murder by shooting one Lavon Cain, a girl 17 years of age. They entered pleas of not guilty and waived trial by jury. The court found all four of the defendants guilty of murder and sentenced Edwina Howard to imprisonment for a term of fifty years and the other three defendants for terms of fourteen years. Evelyn and Helen Rivers prosecute this writ of error. The defendants, Helen Rivers and Wilma Howard, and the deceased, Lavon Cain, were students at DuSable High School in the city of Chicago. There appeared to be some bad feelings between the Cain girl and the defendants and there was some evidence that the Cain girl and other students had chased, pushed and threatened some of the defendants at different times, on the streets and at different places near the school where the students congregated. One of these incidents occurred in the afternoon before the day of the shooting. On that same evening, the four defendants got together and discussed getting guns to frighten the Cain girl. On the morning of November 18, 1949, the Rivers sisters procured a gun and cartridges at their home and the Howard sisters did likewise. Each of the Howard girls carried one of the loaded guns and the four of them went to the corner of Forty-ninth and Wabash streets near the school where the students frequently congregated. They waited on this corner until shortly after 11:30 A.M. when the school recessed for lunch. The deceased, accompanied by several other students, approached. The evidence as to exactly what occurred prior to the shooting is vague and conflicting. The defendants' evidence was to the effect that the deceased was angry, threatening, and that she pushed one of them. The evidence of the People, supplied by the testimony of the students with the deceased was that nothing was done or said, but, as they approached, the 14-year-old Howard girl pulled out her gun and fired a shot. Then both girls began firing and everybody ran, including the Rivers sisters. After the shooting, the deceased, Lavon Cain, was found lying on her face, a bullet having entered the left side of her back and penetrated the right auricle of her heart, apparently causing instant death. One of the girls with deceased was grazed slightly by a bullet on the back of her head.