Cammons v. State

2 S.E.2d 205, 59 Ga. App. 759, 1939 Ga. App. LEXIS 408
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMarch 15, 1939
Docket27183
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 2 S.E.2d 205 (Cammons v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cammons v. State, 2 S.E.2d 205, 59 Ga. App. 759, 1939 Ga. App. LEXIS 408 (Ga. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinions

MacIntyre, J.

Earl Cammons was indicted for the offense of involuntary manslaughter in the commission of an unlawful act, [760]*760to wit, operating an automobile at a rate of speed in excess of -10 miles per hour, and in so operating “did drive and operate said automobile against, over, and upon and across the saicT Darden McWhorter,” giving him a mortal wound from which he died. Cammons was tried and convicted. He filed a motion for new trial which was amended. Said motion as amended was overruled and he excepted.

The deceased, Darden McWhorter, and several other parties were driving south on the highway leading from Carrollton, Georgia, to Eoopville, Georgia, and they stopped on the right-hand side of the road for the purpose of fixing a flat tire. The deceased was changing the left rear tire. Bright lights were left burning on the parked car. Two cars, followed by a truck, passed, going in the opposite direction, and one of the cars hit the deceased; that is, the second car. The deceased was carried to the hospital in a school bus which followed behind the truck. The deceased died in the hospital. It further appeared from the State’s evidence that the car which struck the deceased was being driven 50 miles or more per hour. The highway was under construction, stobs having been driven on either side of the road preparatory to paving. The parked car was between the stobs and the ditch on the right-hand side of the road going south. The car which hit the deceased angled from the right side of the road (going north) to the left, striking the deceased and carrying his body approximately 50 feet north of the parked car, his body being thrown into the ditch on the left-hand side of the road going north. Two witnesses testified that two cars, one of which hit the deceased, passed the parked car, followed by a big red truck which was in turn followed by the school bus aforementioned. Another witness testified, over objection, that he passed the two mentioned cars and truck and school bus on the night in question and about the time in question, about one-half mile south of the scene of the accident, and the two passenger cars, which preceded the truck and bus, were running approximately 60 miles per hour. The State then introduced a signed statement of the defendant as follows: “On the night of December 95, 1937, I started to Carrollton a little while after dark and it was a dark and foggy night. Just this side of the Burnham place I met a car. This car had bright lights on and 1 turned to the right to miss the car. As I passed I felt that I [761]*761struck something and thought I had side-swiped the car and started to stop, but my brother looked back and said that the car was moving and so I drove on. I did not know that I had hit anybody and didn’t see anybody out on the ground. The next morning I heard that a man had been killed and I was afraid that I struck him, and started to go up and tell the sheriff about it but was advised by my friends to wait until court, that I might have to stay in jail until the April court. I expected to tell it all the time before court met.”

The defendant introduced no testimony but made the following statement: “Gentlemen of the jury, on this night I am accused of this I left Roopville around six o’clock. I was driving a ’31 Chevrolet. When I got pretty close to this car the car was parked on the road with a bright light. I saw the light of the car on the left of the road; I thought it was left, with lights on it. I thought I would pull over there enough to miss their car, to clear the wheels of my car and his, and I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t know whether I hit the car or not. I felt something hit, I didn’t know whether the car or not. I drove on beyond the car and started to stop. I asked my brother if this car stopped and he says, cNo he is still going.’ He looked back and said he was still going. I seed my car wasn’t hurt and I kept going myself coming on to Carrollton. Next morning I learned that boy was killed, and I thought I might be the one that did it. I didn’t know, in fact, I had hit the boy. I didn’t know. I come here next day and they caught a negro they said run over the boy and put him in jail. So I didn’t think any more about it. I didn’t know the boy, didn’t have anything against him. Nobody in the world was more sorry than I was if I did it. I didn’t know the boy. I didn’t see the boy. Nobody couldn’t be any more sorry for his people than I am. I wouldn’t have hurt that man, wouldn’t have run over him for nothing. Gentlemen of the jury, I was running around approximately 30 or 35 miles at most. I was driving a ’31 Chevrolet, about seven or eight years old maybe, and I couldn’t have been running very fast. That model car won’t run very fast. I was probably running 30 or 35 miles an hour. The night was awfully dark and I couldn’t see when the lights blinded me.”

Special ground 1 complains that the judge erred in charging as follows: “It must further appear that as the result of the [762]*762defendant’s haying driven this automobile in excess of 40 miles per hour, that on account of the wilful, reckless, and wanton manner in which he drove the automobile in excess of 40 miles per hour that it was the direct and proximate cause of the death of Darden McWhorter. These being the charges in the indictment, and the manner in which the State alleges that the death of Darden McWhorter was caused, it is incumbent upon the State to satisfy your minds, beyond a reasonable doubt, that all of these things are true, before the defendant could be convicted,” because this amounted to an expression of an opinion and was a misstatement of the material allegations of the bill of indictment because the bill did not charge defendant was operating the automobile in a reckless and wanton manner; that there was no evidence to warrant such a charge and that it was harmful and prejudicial to the defendant. The State does not have to plead its evidence but only the essential elements of the crime, and we think the judge was well within the rule laid down in Keener v. State, 18 Ga. 194, 230 (63 Am. D. 369), that “It is the duty of the judge to declare to the jury what the law is, with its exceptions and qualifications; and then to state hypothetically, that if certain facts, which constitute the offense, are proved to their satisfaction, they will [be authorized to] find the defendant guilty; otherwise, they will acquit him.” Thomas v. State, 49 Ga. App. 484, 489 (176 S. E. 155). This ground is not meritorious.

Special ground 3 complains that the judge erred in charging as follows: “Now, gentlemen, he says he is not guilty of the offense charged in this indictment. He says, in the first place, that he does not admit that the automobile driven by him is the one that killed the deceased. That puts the burden upon the State to prove to the satisfaction of your minds, beyond a reasonable doubt, that, as a matter of fact, the automobile driven by the defendant was the automobile that struck and killed Darden Mc-Whorter. Then he further says that if you believe that to be true, he is not guilty of involuntary manslaughter because he was not driving the automobile at the time at a rate of speed exceeding 40 miles an hour,” because it changed the burden of proof and placed it upon the defendant whereas the law places the burden in the first instance upon the State, and this was harmful and prejudicial error. The judge defined what were the material or essential [763]

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Bluebook (online)
2 S.E.2d 205, 59 Ga. App. 759, 1939 Ga. App. LEXIS 408, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cammons-v-state-gactapp-1939.