Flannigan v. State

134 N.E. 885, 192 Ind. 19, 1922 Ind. LEXIS 31
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 29, 1922
DocketNo. 28,833
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 134 N.E. 885 (Flannigan v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Flannigan v. State, 134 N.E. 885, 192 Ind. 19, 1922 Ind. LEXIS 31 (Ind. 1922).

Opinion

Myers, J.

1. In the court below, appellants were charged, tried and convicted of assault and battery with intent to kill one James E. Dykes, and judgment was rendered fixing their punishment as prescribed by statute, §2240 Burns 1914, Acts 1905 p. 584, §352. Appellants’ separate and several motions for a new trial were each overruled and these rulings are assigned as error. The other alleged errors are properly causes for a new trial and cannot be assigned as independent errors on appeal. Allen v. State (1881), 74 Ind. 216; Lewis v. State (1895), 142 Ind. 30, 41 N. E. 310; Hedrick v. Hall (1900), 155 Ind. 371, 373, 58 [21]*21N. E. 257; Reeves & Co. v. Gillette (1911), 47 Ind. App. 221, 94 N. E. 242.

2. The causes in support of each motion are the same and raise the same questions for decision, hence no purpose will be subserved by particularizing either appellant. We must consider appellants’ points and authorities as directing our attention to the questions for decision. All other causes in the motion for a new trial will be regarded as waived. Schmoe v. Cotton, Admx. (1906), 167 Ind. 364, 79 N. E. 184; Schondel v. State (1910), 174 Ind. 734, 739, 93 N. E. 67; Wellington v. Reynolds (1912), 177 Ind. 49, 55, 97 N. E. 155; Dorsey v. State (1913), 179 Ind. 531, 100 N. E. 369; Krabbe v. City of Lafayette (1919), 70 Ind. App. 428, 123 N. E. 424; Vandalia Coal Co. v. Butler (1918), 68 Ind. App. 245, 119 N. E. 34.

3. Appellants first contend that the court erred in refusing to permit them to propound certain questions to the jurors on their voir dire examination. There has been no attempt to bring this examination into the record other than by the recitals in the motion for a new trial. ' Matters of this character can- . not be so presented. Heath v. State (1910), 173 Ind. 296, 300, 90 N. E. 310, 21 Ann. Cas. 1056, and cases there cited.

True, as appellants claim, a motion for a new trial is a part of the record, but it does not necessarily follow that the trial court thereby authenticates the correctness of such recitals. Hence, there is no question presented pertaining to the qualifications of jurors even under §2, Acts 1917 p. -523, §691b Burns’ Supp. 1918.

Appellants next assert that the court erred in permitting the state to introduce certain evidence over their objections. The evidence thus questioned refers to the testimony of the prosecuting witness wherein he said that he had been employed by a Mr. Harding to help [22]*22make a survey; that he had been commissioned as a special constable by the commissioners of Clinton county, and as such, had been called at different times by the Horsethief Detective Association to do work for them; and also testimony of Lee Gentry, a witness offered by the state, wherein over the objection of Everett Flannigan he testified that in a conversation with Charles Flannigan concerning the trouble with the prosecuting witness Charles Flannigan said: • “It was a good thing for him (Dykes) that John Worth didn’t let him have the ax or he would have killed. Dykes with it.”

4. Appellants justify their actions on the theory of self-defense and that they used no more force than was necessary to expel the prosecuting witness from their land upon his refusal to heed their request so to do, and their belief of his possession of a revolver which he intended to use if necessary in order to force his way across their land.

The undisputed evidence shows that Everett struck the prosecuting witness with his fist on the side and back part of his neck, knocking him down. At the place where he fell and at the time he was picked up, a revolver was found by a witness to the trouble and left in his woodhouse. The prosecuting witness, however, denied having a revolver, although there is evidence tending to show that he owned one and sometimes carried it. . There is no evidence tending to connect either of appellants with the revolver. By showing that this witness was a special constable and had done some detective work, the state attempted to furnish an excuse for Dykes’ possession of the revolver, if in fact he had one. It appears to us that this excusing testimony was favorable to appellants rather than harmful.

[23]*235. [22]*22As to the Gentry testimony, it must be kept in mind that appellants, by agreement, were being tried at the [23]*23same time upon charges preferred by three sepa rate affidavits, two against Everett, one for assault and battery with intent and the other as an accessory before the fact, and Charles, by an affidavit charging him with assault and battery with intent. On the trial these affidavits, it seems, were tried as one affidavit containing three counts.

The declaration of Charles two or three weeks after the alleged crime, of course, would not be admissible as against Everett, but it was admissible against Charles. Allen v. State, supra. It should have been so limited, but the question of its admissibility was correctly decided.

6. Appellants say the instructions given by the court upon its own motion were each separately and severally erroneous, for the reason that “in each instruction throughout the several instructions given from 1 to 58 inclusive, the appellants are each referred to as Flannigam” and for that reason they are entitled to a new trial. It appears that appellants were mentioned by name in nine of the fifty-nine instructions given and in four of these as Flannigam and iii five as Flannigan. Appellants’ contention in this particular is without merit.

7. Appellants’ points and authorities direct our attention to instructions Nos. 6 and 58, and any question as to any others must be regarded as waived. By instruction No. 6 the court explained to the jury the elements embraced in a charge of assault and battery with intent to kill. It is not subject to criticism as being speculative or as embracing subjects foreign to such a charge. Following this instruction the court gave six others covering murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree and voluntary manslaughter as felonies within the range of the consideration of the jury on the question of intent. By these [24]*24instructions the jury was unmistakably informed as to its duty respecting the essential elements included in the charge, and all of which, according to the instructions, it was required to find beyond a reasonable doubt before it would be authorized to return a verdict of guilty.

Instruction No. 58 was on the subject of the character of the verdict which the jury would be authorized to return under the charges preferred, and was clearly a correct instruction.

8. Finally it is insisted that the verdict of the jury is not sustained by sufficient evidence. From the general trend of the argument in support of appellants’ contention in this respect it would seem that counsel have overlooked the fact that this court occupies a different position from that of the trial court. What our conclusion might be upon the evidence generally is unimportant.

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Bluebook (online)
134 N.E. 885, 192 Ind. 19, 1922 Ind. LEXIS 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/flannigan-v-state-ind-1922.