Hicks v. State

533 S.W.2d 330, 1975 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 267
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedSeptember 30, 1975
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 533 S.W.2d 330 (Hicks v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hicks v. State, 533 S.W.2d 330, 1975 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 267 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

DUNCAN, Judge.

OPINION

The plaintiff in error, Charles Hicks, Jr., hereinafter referred to as the defendant, brings this appeal contesting his conviction for murder in the first degree and resulting penitentiary sentence of twenty (20) years and one (1) day.

In his first assignment, the defendant contends that the court erred in failing to instruct the jury on voluntary intoxication as it pertains to the elements of premeditation and deliberation involved in murder in the first degree.

After a careful review of the record we do not find error in this regard. There was no evidence presented at the trial to raise the issue of voluntary intoxication. While there was some testimony that the defendant and his associates had participated in some drinking during the day of the homicide, it was not insisted by the defendant at the trial that he was intoxicated at the time of the incident.

The defendant testified that “quite a bit” of drinking had taken place. He stated that whiskey was there in the office and everybody was helping themselves to it. Additionally, he testified that he had had “something to drink.”

Cecil Breeden and Howard Largent, witnesses for the state, testified that during the hours preceding the homicide, the men at the office, including the defendant, had been drinking. The witness Largent testified that “nobody,” including the defendant, was “drunk.”

The fact that voluntary drunkenness was not being interposed as a defense in this case is graphically illustrated by the fact that the defendant’s counsel did not make any special request to the court for instructions on this issue. An accused is entitled to an affirmative instruction upon every issue raised by the evidence, but there is no requirement on the part of the court to instruct on matters not raised by the evidence. Simpson v. State, 1 Tenn.Cr.App. 256, 437 S.W.2d 538 (1968); Lester v. State, 212 Tenn. 338, 370 S.W.2d 405 (1963).

Nowhere in his testimony did the defendant take the position that he was intoxicated at the time of the killing involved herein, nor that any of his actions were motivated or influenced by his intake of intoxicants. Rather, his position was that he did not fire the fatal shot that killed the deceased. He testified in vivid and minute detail as to his version of the events that took place on this occasion. The mere fact that there was some evidence that the defendant had been [332]*332drinking, without more, is not sufficient to raise the issue of voluntary intoxication. We conclude that the issue of voluntary intoxication was not raised by the proof, and therefore there was no duty on the part of the court to charge the jury on this question.

In his second assignment, the defendant alleges that the court erred in admitting expert testimony on powder burns, and in his third assignment the defendant complains that the court failed to instruct the jury regarding the weight to be given to expert testimony.

Neither of these grounds were presented to the trial court in the defendant’s motion for a new trial, and the defendant is thus precluded from raising these questions on this appeal. The law of this state is that, absent any patently invalidating error, the trial judge will not be put in error upon matters not brought to his attention for correction in the motion for a new trial, and assignments of error which were not incorporated in the new trial motion will not be considered on appeal. Jenkins v. State, Tenn.Cr.App., 509 S.W.2d 240 (1974); Pulley v. State, Tenn.Cr.App., 506 S.W.2d 164 (1973); Hancock v. State, 1 Tenn.Cr.App. 116, 430 S.W.2d 892 (1968); Rule 14(4) and (5) of the Tennessee Supreme Court Rules, adopted by this Court.

Further, as to the complaint regarding the failure of the trial court to charge on the weight to be given expert testimony, we add that no special request for such instruction was tendered to the court, and no objection to the charge was made at the trial. For these reasons, together with the fact that this complaint was not made in the motion for a new trial, as stated, the defendant is now precluded from raising the question here for the first time. Hancock v. State, supra.

With regard to the admission of the expert testimony, it should be noted that the. admission of such is within the discretion of the trial judge. Arterburn v. State, 216 Tenn. 240, 391 S.W.2d 648 (1965). We find no abuse of discretion here. We think the testimony was properly admitted.

For the reasons stated, the second and third assignments of error are overruled.

In his last assignment, the defendant contends that there was not sufficient evidence to sustain the verdict.

The proof, as accredited by the jury, showed that on December 21, 1973, the defendant, a shop foreman for the County Highway Department, was at the shop with some fellow workers. However, due to bad weather, the men were not working that day. During the day, the men drank some whiskey. Hicks had a .22 caliber pistol earlier in the afternoon or evening, which he claimed disappeared, and he had a dispute with some of the men over that incident. He called his ex-wife, Elsie (Lee) Hicks, and had her deliver to him a shotgun and a .38 caliber pistol. Hicks loaded the pistol and threatened two of the men, Cecil Breeden and Howard Largent. Around 8:00 p. m. the defendant called his girl friend, Margaret Welker, the victim herein, and a few minutes later she came to the shop in her car. As she stepped through the office door, the defendant shot her with a .38 caliber revolver, the bullet entering her neck and exiting from her back on the left side.

Included in the state’s proof was the testimony of Cecil Breeden, previously mentioned, who stated that he saw the defendant shoot the victim in the neck. Breeden testified that after the shooting, Hicks told Howard Lagent to destroy the gun, and told Breeden to call the Sheriff.

Howard Largent testified that he was around the shop most of the day and that the men, including the defendant, were drinking some but that he never saw “nobody drunk”; that the defendant was not drunk; that he overheard the defendant call someone about bringing some more guns and shells over to him; that the de[333]*333fendant’s “wife,” Elsie (Lee) Hicks, (the witness is obviously referring to the defendant’s ex-wife) brought a shotgun and pistol; that she handed the defendant the pistol, and when asked what the defendant did with the pistol, the witness said:

“Q Then what did he do with this pistol at that time?
A He took the pistol and loaded it, and she said don’t point that gun at me, she said, that gun’s dangerous and she left right about then, she left, and he kept on rolling it around and loading it and pointing it at me and Bree-den in that little office there.
Q Did he threaten you all with it at that time?

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Bluebook (online)
533 S.W.2d 330, 1975 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 267, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hicks-v-state-tenncrimapp-1975.