Gladney v. State

61 S.E.2d 287, 82 Ga. App. 397, 1950 Ga. App. LEXIS 1118
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedSeptember 19, 1950
Docket33055
StatusPublished

This text of 61 S.E.2d 287 (Gladney 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
Gladney v. State, 61 S.E.2d 287, 82 Ga. App. 397, 1950 Ga. App. LEXIS 1118 (Ga. Ct. App. 1950).

Opinion

MacIntyre, P. J.

Leon Gladney was indicted for murder. Upon the trial of the case the jury returned a verdict finding the defendant guilty of voluntary manslaughter and fixed his punishment at not less than one year and not more than three years in the penitentiary. The defendant’s motion for a new trial based upon the usual general grounds and one special ground was overruled and he excepted.

[398]*398It appears from one phase of the evidence that, on August 13, 1949, the defendant, who was serving as marshal of the town of Centralhatchee in Heard County, Georgia, was on duty when, at about 8:30 at night Thomas Gladney came to town and parked his truck so that the body of the truck extended into the highway. The defendant went to Thomas Gladney and requested him to move the truck so that it would not extend into the highway. Thomas Gladney, according to the defendant’s statement, remarked, “Hell, its seven feet from the middle of the road,” to which the defendant replied, “It don’t make any difference; I will have to make a case unless you move it.” It appears from the evidence that Thomas Gladney moved his truck a bit farther out of the highway and went close by to a filling station operated by Charlie Hardin. The defendant returned to his automobile, a short distance away, parked near the center of the town, from which vantage point he customarily kept his vigil in performing his duties as marshal of the town. He got into his automobile and was sitting on the left-hand side, under the steering wheel, engaged in a conversation with J. Dorsey Ashley, one of the witnesses on the trial, who was seated on the right-hand side of the car, when Thomas Gladney came toward the defendant’s car from the direction of Charlie Hardin’s filling station, a distance of approximately 168 feet away. As he approached the defendant’s car on the side occupied by Ashley, he inquired of the defendant, “Why don’t you make that other fellow move his car? It is on the pavement as much as mine.” According to the witness Ashley, who was in the defendant’s car, the defendant replied, “Tom, I asked you in a nice way to move your truck,” and the defendant immediately got out of his car and walked around the rear of his car to the side on which the deceased was, where the deceased struck the defendant a staggering blow, knocking him almost down. (Just how far the defendant had gone on the deceased’s side of the car is, under the record, indefinite.) When the defendant regained his equilibrium, he was scuffling with Thomas Gladney. Ashley did not know whether the defendant struck Thomas Gladney or not, as the blow was struck at a point more to the rear of the defendant’s car from where Ashley was sitting. It was at this point that the shooting occurred, and the undisputed [399]*399testimony was that five shots were fired. Following the encounter between the defendant and Thomas Gladney, Thomas Gladney started back toward Charlie Hardin’s filling station, and calling to Mr. Hardin said, “That son-of-a-bitch shot me.” The defendant went to the store of Mr. Cartwright, another of the witnesses on the trial, and requested him to call the sheriff. The witness Ashley testified unequivocally that, at the time Thomas Gladney struck the defendant, the defendant had “never raised his hand or done anything to Tom Gladney.” It appears further that, suffering from the wounds inflicted during the encounter with the defendant, Thomas Gladney was taken to the hospital by the defendant, where he died that night.

Upon the arrival of the sheriff at the hospital, approximately 20 or 30 minutes after the shooting, the defendant turned his pistol over to the sheriff. The sheriff testified concerning the defendant’s gun, “It was empty, empty cartridges in it.” The evidence is undisputed that, at the time of the shooting, Thomas Gladney had a pistol, which was not concealed as it was stuck in a holster under his belt and was sticking out from under his shirt. This pistol was turned over to the sheriff on the night of the shooting, and though the gun passed through the hands of several persons before reaching the sheriff, the sheriff testified that there were no empty chambers in this pistol, at the time he received it. The defendant introduced M. P. Awbrey as a witness, and he testified that the defendant’s car was a two-do'or car, and that'he had removed the right-hand door of the car, the side on which the shooting occurred. The door, which was tendered in evidence, contained a hole. This witness testified that he saw the hole in the door the next morning, but there was no evidence of how the hole came to be there, or of when or by whom it was put there. The defendant made the following statement: “. '. The night this happened up there, the city had impressed it on me not to permit people to park in the road; Tom Gladney parked his car with a few feet of the body sticking up in the highway. I walked out and there and says, ‘Hello Tom.’ I says, ‘Tom, move your truck back a few more feet.’ He says, ‘Hell, its seven feet from the middle of the road.’ I says, ‘It don’t make any difference, I will have to make a case unless you move it.’ I got back in the car and set down. He went [400]*400out to Hardin’s and stayed out there a little bit. Mr. Hardin come out and a negro come up in front of Hardin’s filling station. Tom came over where I was. I was in the car, sitting in there. Tom was standing near the back where the door is. I walked up there and he says, ‘Why don’t you make that God damn son-of-a-bitch move his car?’ and he hit me and knocked me-back with a hard lick. When I come to myself, Tom’s gun was. pointed right on me. I grabbed the gun and that is when the-firing took place. Tom turned, and when I grabbed the gun and jerked loose from me and run back and he raised the gun. again and turned and went back down there towards Hardin’s, with the gun in his hand. I went to Mr. Cartwright’s store and told him to call the sheriff, I hated to do it but had to. I don’t, know how many shots were fired. I couldn’t tell you how many times I shot. I put Tom in the car and brought him to the hospital and took it out and there were four shells and two cartridges, making four times I shot. I picked Tom up and brought him to the hospital, with Mr. Hardin and Williams helped me; carried him to the hospital and I stayed there until the sheriff come. They called the sheriff. I asked him what to do, and. he said stay right there. I had to do it. I done it in self-defense-only.”

The jury was authorized to find from the evidence and the defendant’s statement to the jury that, under the circumstances at the time the defendant shot the deceased, there was. no actual or apparent necessity to slay to prevent the .commission of a felony upon the defendant, but that the defendant,, under one phase of the evidence and the defendant’s statement,, acting under an unabated heat of passion, aroused by an actual, assault less than a felony upon him by the deceased, shot and killed Thomas Gladney. It follows that the jury was authorized to find against the defense of justifiable homicide and in returning the verdict of voluntary manslaughter. Albert v. State, 70 Ga. App. 39 (27 S. E. 2d, 249); Barney v. State, 5 Ga. App. 301 (63 S. E. 28); Walker v. State, 80 Ga. App. 418, 421 (56 S. E. 2d, 132); Ragland v. State, 111 Ga. 211, 214 (36 S. E. 682); Brown v. State, 144 Ga. 216, 218 (87 S. E. 4).

In special ground 1, the defendant contends that “the-prosecution failed to establish the fact of the proof of death,. [401]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Weaver v. State
37 S.E.2d 802 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1946)
Albert v. State
27 S.E.2d 249 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1943)
Walker v. State
56 S.E.2d 132 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1949)
Hicks v. State
18 S.E.2d 637 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1942)
Ragland v. State
36 S.E. 682 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1900)
Brown v. State
87 S.E. 4 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1915)
Pinson v. State
191 S.E. 95 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1937)
Barney v. State
63 S.E. 28 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1908)
Long v. State
4 S.E.2d 75 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1939)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
61 S.E.2d 287, 82 Ga. App. 397, 1950 Ga. App. LEXIS 1118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gladney-v-state-gactapp-1950.