Lee v. State

298 S.W.2d 155, 164 Tex. Crim. 279
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas·Decided January 9, 1957·No. 28441·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinions

[280]*280MORRISON, Presiding Judge.

The offense is maiming; the punishment, three years.

Animosity had existed between the injured party “Lady” and the appellant “Chicken” for some time prior to the night in question. Seven years before, they had a fight in an alley in which Lady claims that she was cut and Chicken’s nose was bitten. The appellant contended that their animosity grew out of her husband’s attentions toward the injured party and claims that she had seen them together in another city a few nights before that charged in the indictment. The injured party denied any familiarity or infidelity with the appellant’s husband. Both husbands testified. Lady’s husband denied any knowledge of her infidelity to him, and the appellant’s husband testified that he had been having an affair with Lady and that all the ill will between the women was “over him.”

This brings us to the night of the assault herein charged, which cost the injured party the vision in both of her eyes.

Lady testified that she and her eight children went to a Little League ball game; and, as she was outside her automobile holding one of the younger children so that he might be “excused,” one of the older children warned her, “There comes Miss Chicken. She has got something behind her.” Lady testified that she returned the small child to the automobile, picked up a hammer from the floorboard, and prepared to meet Chicken, who was approaching her; but that before she could do anything the appellant threw a liquid into her face, and she, in turn, threw the hammer in the appellant’s direction. She stated that another of her children again warned her, “Here she comes, she has got a knife,” and that she then fled some three blocks to the home of a Latin-American, who carried her to the hospital, and that she was carried the next day to a specialist but that his efforts in her behalf had been to no avail and that she was completely blind.

The indictment was in three counts, two charging that the liquid thrown was lye, and the third charging that it was a solution “the contents of which is unknown to the grand jurors.”

Certain scrapings were taken from the injured party’s automobile and submitted to the Department of Public Safety for chemical analysis. Chemist Charles Smith testified that he found the specimen to be “a compound containing sodium” and, [281]*281further, “I was unable to specifically identify this as sodium hydroxide, which is common household lye. It only had the properties that I mentioned, which are suggestive of lye.”

A member of the grand jury testified that they had been unable during their deliberations to determine definitely what the solution was which was thrown.

Dr. Crymes testified that on the night in question he received a telephone call from the appellant in which she inquired “what was good for a lye burn,” saying that some had “splattered back on me.” He stated that shortly thereafter he went to the hospital, where he administered first aid to the injured party, and expressed the opinion, though he conducted no tests, that the solution which had been thrown into the injured party’s eyes was lye.

All three counts of the indictment were submitted to the jury, and they returned a general verdict; and no question of election has been raised.

The injured party was supported in her testimony by two of her children.

The appellant testified to quite a different state of facts. She stated that, as she sat in her automobile at the ball game, Lady approached her automobile and began to assault her with a hammer, stating that she was going to kill her.

She stated that on that morning she had prepared a solution of Saniflush and water in order to clean a stove belonging to her employer, that some was left over, and she placed it in an old oil can and put it in her automobile to take home, but that when she got home she forgot to take it out of the automobile.

Appellant testified further that Lady hit her on the arm, in the mouth, and on the back of the head with the hammer; that she finally got hold of the hammer with her left hand, and, as Lady pulled her out of her automobile by the hair, she picked up the can of Saniflush from the floorboard and “I just throwed it in her face, can, paper sack and all,” at which time Lady relinquished her hold on the hammer, and she got in her automobile and drove out in the country to the home of some of her relatives. Appellant offered no eye witnesses to the affray and stated that she had been unable to locate any.

[282]*282The jury resolved the disputed issue of self defense against the appellant, and we find the evidence sufficient to support their verdict.

The facts will be more fully discussed in connection with the bills of exception so ably argued by counsel and in the order presented in his brief.

In the court’s charge, the jury was instructed that in order to convict they must find beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant wilfully and maliciously threw into the face of the injured party a solution of lye or other solution, the contents of which were unknown to the grand jury, and that said solution did put out the sight of her eyes.

In this connection, the jury was instructed that if they found beyond a reasonable doubt that the means used by appellant were such as would, in the manner used, ordinarily result in maiming or destroying the sight of the eyes, the law presumes that the intention was to maim without regard to the knowledge of appellant in using such means, as to whether or not the same would be calculated to maim or destroy the sight of the eyes.

The court’s charge further instructed the jury to acquit if they found or entertained a reasonable doubt that appellant threw the solution while under reasonable apprehension or fear of death or serious bodily injury from an attack by the injured party.

No complaints, by objection, exceptions or requested charges, were lodged against the charge save that shown by bill of exception No. 1.

This bill complains of the refusal of the trial court to grant her requested charge No. 1, which told the jury to acquit if they found that “throwing such solution into the eyes of the injured party was accidental.” She contends that such a charge was required because the appellant testified that when she threw the liquid she did not intend to put out the eyes of the injured party.

Appellant relies upon a number of murder cases as authority for her contention that the appellant’s testimony raised the issue of accidental maiming. In the main, they are those cases which involve the alleged accidental discharge of a firearm, [283]*283and, we have concluded, under the facts here before us, have no application to the case at bar. When the appellant, who had used the fluid contained in the can that morning and certainly knew its caustic properties, “throwed it in her face,” she will be presumed to have realized the consequences of her act. The mere statement that she did not intend to put out the injured party’s eyes does not raise the defense of accident. Her defense here is that she did not intend the consequences of the act, which is something else again from a claim that she did not intend to commit the act.

Bill of Exception No. 2 involves newly discovered evidence. At a part of the bill, there is the testimony of one Ellis given on the motion for new trial.

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Lee v. State, 298 S.W.2d 155, 164 Tex. Crim. 279 (Tex. 1957).

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Lee v. State
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