Bonner v. State

15 S.W. 821, 29 Tex. Ct. App. 223, 1890 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 129
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 29, 1890
DocketNo. 3562
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 15 S.W. 821 (Bonner v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bonner v. State, 15 S.W. 821, 29 Tex. Ct. App. 223, 1890 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 129 (Tex. Ct. App. 1890).

Opinion

WHITE, Presiding Judge.

This appeal is from a judgment of con- . viction for murder of the second degree, the punishment being assessed at five years in the penitentiary.

1. Defendant made a motion in arrest of judgment upon the ground that he had not been served with a copy of the indictment upon which he had been tried, and because the said indictment was the second indictment preferred against him in this case, and was invalid because not sub[229]*229stituted as provided by article 434 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which prescribes the rule where a previous indictment has been lost or mislaid. Beyond the recitals in the motions in arrest and for new trial, we find no evidence in the record establishing the fact that the indictment was a second one found against appellant, and that the first had been lost or mislaid. If it was a second indictment this could avail the defendant nothing, because the pendency of one indictment is no bar to another, even for the same offense, though the accused can only be tried upon one. Hardin v. The State, 4 Texas Ct. App., 355; Cock v. The State, 8 Texas Ct. App., 659; Schindler v. The State, 15 Texas Ct. App., 394; Williams v. The State, 30 Texas Ct. App., 357. After verdict it is too late to object for the first time that no copy of the indictment was served on the defendant. Roberts v. The State, 5 Texas Ct. App., 141; Richardson v. The State, 7 Texas Ct. App., 486. No material error is shown in the court overruling the motion in arrest of judgment.

3. Numerous objections are urged to the charge of the court, both for errors of omission and commission. Its sufficiency is attacked by defendant’s first bill of exceptions because it omitted to submit as part of the law of the case the issue of manslaughter, which issue, it is insisted, is clearly raised by the evidence. It is insisted by the Assistant Attorney-General in his brief that manslaughter is not in the case, because the defendant, in testifying as a witness, testified that he killed deceased in self-' defense against apparent, if not real, danger—the deceased at the time he was killed being in the act of advancing upon him in a threatening manner, with a drawn knife in his hand—and that he shot deceased because he believed that if deceased had got to him he would have killed him, as he had threatened to do.

Independently of defendant’s statement that he killed the deceased in self-defense, we think the evidence fairly raises the issue of manslaughter. Defendant and Nelson, his relative and friend, had previously been attacked by the deceased, who was a much more powerful man than either of them. Deceased had run both of them on the Sunday previous, and had chased them to their own home and to the inside of their own yard, and was only prevented from pursuing them into their own house by some female relatives of theirs. When the women asked him to go away he said “If you don’t keep that black bastard son-of-a-bitch penned up he is my meat.” He lurked around in a back alley to their premises, seeking an opportunity to get at them. A few nights before the killing he saw defendant on his way home, and again chased defendant through an alley. On the day of the homicide he was again chasing Nelson from the base ball ground, and had run him almost to the yard gate of his home when defendant met them. Nelson, got in the gate, and Sparks, the deceased, seeing defendant, said to him, “You black son-of-a-bitch, you will do just as well,” and immediately rushed upon him. Defendant [230]*230drew his pistol and retreated to the middle of the street, telling him repeatedly to “ stand back.” Sparks still advanced, grabbing at his pistol,, when defendant finally fired the fatal shot. Most of the witnesses testified that deceased was a violent, dangerous man; that defendant was. much inferior to him in strength, and was of a quiet, peaceable disposition, and was a consumptive. Some of the witnesses say Bonner seemed frightened when he was backing from Sparks. Bonner himself testified:'. “I told him to stop; he did not do it, and I fired. I did not take any aim. particularly—I was so badly frightened when I shot. I wanted to stop-him, and when I saw that I had stopped him I did not shoot any more.”

By the expression “adequate cause,” as used in the definition of manslaughter in our Code (Penal Code, art. 593), “is meant such as would, commonly produce a degree of anger, rage, resentment, or terror in a person of ordinary temper sufficient to render the mind incapable of cool reflection.” Penal Code, art. 595.

It was, we think, a pertinent question to be determined by the jury-f rom all the circumstances attendant upon the killing, whether the causes-we have detailed were such as would commonly produce such a degree of. anger, rage, resentment, or terror as to render the defendant’s mind incapable of cool reflection. “Any condition or circumstance which is capable of creating sudden passion sufficient to render the mind of a person of ordinary temper incapable of cool reflection may constitute ‘adequate-cause,’ .and where the evidence shows a number of conditions or circumstances, tending either singly or collectively to constitute what a jury-might consider adequate cause, the charge should leave the jury at liberty to consider them all in determining whether or not adequate cause existed. Orman v. The State, 24 Texas Ct. App., 495; Hawthorne v. The State, 28 Texas Ct. App., 212; Cochran v. The State, 28 Texas Ct. App., 422; Willson’s Crim. Stats., sec. 1018.

The fact that the defendant, when testifying as a witness, claimed that, he killed deceased in self-defense alone would not deprive him of the right, to have all the other legitimate issues in the case submitted to the jury. In so far as the law of the case is concerned, his testimony is treated simply-as that of any other witness in the case. The charge, to he sufficient,. must submit all the legitimate issues fairly arising from all the evidence, in the case. Apropos to the facts in this case, we quote the following from Rutherford’s case, 15 Texas Court of Appeals, 236: “Here the defendant, had been grossly insulted and abused by the language of the deceased, and these insults and abuse were being continued, and deceased was in the act-apparently of preparing to make (making in this case) a deadly assault-upon defendant with a knife; and besides this, the deceased was a notoriously desperate man. Such being the facts, we think it very natural that a person of ordinary temper would be aroused to a degree of sudden passion sufficient to render his mind incapable of cool reflection. It. [231]*231would require, we think, a man of extraordinary coolness and bravery to remain free from sudden and violent passion, and to refrain from prompt and violent action under such circumstances. While such a state of facts may not constitute justifiable homicide, still we think they would well warrant a jury in finding that they did not constitute murder, and therefore the issue of manslaughter should have been submitted in the charge." See also 35 Mich., 16.

Several objections are urged to the charge of the court upon self-defense. There was no instruction that in judging of the defendant’s acts in connection with his real or apprehended danger the jury should judge of them from his, defendant’s, standpoint, and as they appeared to him at the time. Such an instruction was called for by the facts and circumstances developed in evidence. Bell v. The State, 20 Texas, 445; Cochran v. The State, 28 Texas Ct. App., 422, and authorities cited; Gonzales v. The State, 28 Texas Ct. App., 130.

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Bluebook (online)
15 S.W. 821, 29 Tex. Ct. App. 223, 1890 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 129, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bonner-v-state-texapp-1890.