NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - Kingsport Times (Kingsport, Tennessee), Monday, November 9, 1959, Page 1
Accused Critical After Attack By Victim's Son (By DAVID McBRIDE)
A dispute over a bee tree led to the fatal shooting Sunday night of Najeeb 'Jimmy' Shaheen, 65, at his home on the Johnson City Highway near the Washington County line.
Walter Necessary, 55, who officers said will be charged with murder, is in poor condition at Holston Valley Community Hospital. A Sullivan County deputy was posted at Necessary's door at the hospital.
He was admitted to the hospital with injuries sufferied at the hands of Adel Shaheen, about 18 and son of the fatally injured man. Young Shaheen admitted to beating Necessary after the shooting.
Necessary is employed at General Shale and lives at 132 Pennsylvania Avenue.
According to Sgt. Hugh Barger of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the incident occured around 6 p.m. in front of the Shaheen home.
An eyewitness to the shooting, Jimmy Kitzmiller, told Barger he and Necessary went in Shaheen's home to get some honey from the bee tree.
Barger said Necessary recently gut some trees on or near the Shaheen property for a saw mill concern in Kingsport and discovered the bee tree with the honey.
Kitzmiller told Barger that Necessary, who is the father-in-law of his brother, asked him (Jimmy Kitzmiller) if he would take him to the Shaheen home to get the honey. Kitzmiller complied.
He said they went to the home of Shaheen and were near the house when Shaheen appeared on the scene and asked them if they had found what they were looking for.
An argument started, he said, in which Necessary began to curse Shaheen. Shaheen told the man to stop cursing and ordered him off his property.
It was then, he said, that Necessary partially stepped from his car and fired three or four times at Shaheen. Shaheen was struck by one bullet in the right chest.
Kitzmiller said he then drove to his brother's home in the Fordtown area and called the Highway Patrol. He arrived back at the scene at almost the same time as the Patrol.
Shaheen was dead when officers arrived. His body was lying about 75 yards from his home. The unconscious Necessary was found in the yard of the home.
Shaheen told this reporter Monday morning that he drove up to his home before the shooting and saw a car in a driveway near the home.
He said he was talking on the phone when he heard the shots. He thought they were firecrackers but went to the front door to check. Some men were standing several yards from the house, he said, but he didn't think anything was wrong and continued talking on the phone.
"A few minutes later," he said, "two men came to the front door." He quoted one as saying, "We came to rob a bee tree and got into an argument. We shot the old man."
Shaheen said he got his deer rifle and went out of the house. The one he thought was Kitzmiller ran from the house and jumped into the car, and the older man, believed to be Necessary, remained in the yard.
He went down to where the group was standing and saw his father lying on the ground. "I knew he was wounded," he said.
"I came back toward the house and Necessary started running toward the back. I hit him in the back of the head with the rifle."
Shaheen said he then went back to his father and was told the man was dead. "I went back to where Necessary was lying and beat him with my fists until his face was bloody."
Young Shaheen was released from jail early this morning after a $1,000 bond was posted by relatives.
Capt. Frank Williamson and Trooper W. R. Jordan were at the hospital shortly after the shooting, checking the condition of Necessary, when young Shaheen arrived with his mother.
Jordan said Shaheen saw Necessary lying on the emergency room table and said, "that's the man I beat up because he killed my daddy."
Williamson and Jordan said Shaheen started into the room in the direction of Necessary and had to be restrained. They said he again tried to get into the room, was again stopped and turned over to city police who placed him in jail.
The weapon, a .32 caliber snubnosed revolver was found on Necessary at the hospital. Capt. Williamson ordered the bullet, which remained in the body of Shaheen removed for a ballistic test.
Sgt. Hugh K. Jaynes assisted in the investigation.
Shaheen owned and operated a shoe shop and variety store at 728 E. Center Street and was a member of the Bethany Presbyterian Church.
He was born in Lebanon and had been in the United States since 1907.
Survivors include his widow, Mrs. Goldie Moore Shaheen of Kingsport, one son, Adel Shaheen; two sisters, Mrs. Yamamee Moarie and Mrs. Milhasney Ollie of Lebanon; several nieces and nephews in Lebanon and one nephew in Princeton, W. Va.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete.
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - Kingsport Times (Kingsport, Tennessee), Thursday, July 14, 1960, Page 1
Necessary Gets Conviction Of Manslaughter (By JERRY ALLEY)
BLOUNTVILLE - Samuel Walter (sic, Walker) Necessary was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter by a Criminal Court jury late Wednesday night and sentenced to five years in prison.
Necessary, a 59-year-old sawmill worker from Kingsport, had pleaded not guilty to a first degree murder charge growing out of the death of Najeeb (Jimmy) Shaheen.
Shaheen, a Kingsport shoe repairman, was killed near his home, eight miles south of Kingsport, on Nov. 8, 1959 by a bullet from Necessary's .32 cal. revolver.
Necessary admitted firing the fatal shot but said he acted in self defense after an unprevoked attack by Shaheen.
Shaheen was struck in the chest by the bullet. A doctor said death was "instantaneous."
The shooting occurred when Necessary and another man went to Shaheen's home on Sunday afternoon to obtain honey from a "bee tree."
Necessary said he emptied his revolver at Shaheen after Shaheen "beat me with a big club." The defendant said he "blacked out" after the shooting and did not know he had killed Shaheen until two weeks later.
Necessary was hospitalized for two weeks from injuries suffered at the hands of the victim's 19-year-old son, Adel Shaheen.
The younger Shaheen admitted beating Necessary with his fists and the butt of a high-powered rifle after he found his father's body lying in the driveway at their home.
Young Shaheen also admitted firing a shot at Necessary's companion, Jimmy Kitzmiller, 25, as he fled from the Shaheen home.
The 12-man jury, which sweltered through two days of testimony and arguments, deliberated nearly three hours before reaching a verdict.
They succeeded where another jury had failed last March.
Kitzmiller, who was the state's key witness in the first trial, surprisingly was used by the defense Wednesday.
He testified that Shaheen struck Necessary "ten of fifteen times" with a large stick before Necessary began shooting.
Kitzmiller managed to flee in his car after the shooting, but his older companion was cornered by Adel Shaheen who said he "probably would have killed Necessary" if a Tennessee state trooper hadn't arrived in time to stop him.
Necessary, who testified he had never seen Shaheen prior to the day of the shooting, insisted he was not angered at Shaheen's refusal to give him honey from the "bee tree."
The tree had been cut several days before by a sawmill owner who had bought timber belonging to Shaheen. Necessary had worked for the sawmill owner, Walter D. Hix, but was not working when the timber was cut on Shaheen's property.
Necessary and Kitzmiller admitted they had been drinking before going to Shaheen's home. They said, however, that they were not intoxicated.
The defendant said he brought along the loaded gun because he had been 'trying to trade it to Kitzmiller." Kitzmiller verified the statement.
Necessary was represented in the case by William S. Todd. Attorney General Howard (Buck) Witt was assisted in the prosecution by Burkett McInturff.
GRAVE MARKER
JIMMIE L KITZMILLER
SP4 US ARMY
MAY 2 1935 DEC 20 1996.