Pate v. State

74 S.E.2d 138, 87 Ga. App. 422, 1953 Ga. App. LEXIS 759
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJanuary 17, 1953
Docket34463
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 74 S.E.2d 138 (Pate 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
Pate v. State, 74 S.E.2d 138, 87 Ga. App. 422, 1953 Ga. App. LEXIS 759 (Ga. Ct. App. 1953).

Opinion

Gardner, P. J.

1. In the first special ground of his motion for a new trial, the defendant assigns as error the following charge of the court: “Then address yourselves to the question of whether he is guilty of a lesser offense embraced within the allegations of the indictment, and that is the offense of shooting at another. In that connection, the court charges you that any person who shall be guilty of the offense of shooting at another, except in his own defense, or under circumstances of justification, according to the principles of the Code, with a gun, pistol, or other instrument of like kinds shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for not less than one nor more than four years.” The defendant contends that the foregoing is not a correct statement of the law, and was confusing and misleading to the jury, because the court undertook to charge the provisions of Code § 26-1702, defining the offense of shooting at another, and stated that one would be guilty thereof unless the shooting was done in his own defense “or under circumstances of justification according to the principles of the Code,” and the [423]*423court nowhere instructed the jury what circumstances would constitute justification under the principles of the Code “so as to authorize a verdict of not guilty because of said circumstances.”

This charge is not subject to the criticism urged thereto by the defendant. It stated the provisions of the statute (Code, § 26-1702) in the language thereof, except that the judge added thereto the phrase, “according to the principles of the Code.” See Smith v. State, 44 Ga. App. 259 (161 S. E. 267), and Hart v. State, 55 Ga. App. 85 (189 S. E. 547). In the latter case the court held the following charge not error: “It would make no difference, if the defendant or defendants shot at the prosecutor, not in his own defense or under circumstances of justification, according to the principles of the Code, with what intent he shot—whether to kill him or not.”

2. In the second special ground, the defendant assigns error on the allowance by the court, over his objection, of certain testimony by the prosecutor, C. T. Nelson, to the effect that the defendant had, a few moments prior to the shooting of the witness, while out in the yard in front of the home of Nelson’s mother-in-law, pulled a pistol and said he was going to shoot at some men who were passing by on a tractor, on the ground that the testimony was immaterial and irrelevant, having no bearing on whether or not the defendant was justified in shooting the witness. This ground of the motion is without merit and the court did not err in admitting such testimony.

3. In the third special ground, the defendant contends that the court erred in admitting, over his timely objection that it had no bearing on the issues and did not clarify or illustrate whether the defendant was guilty or innocent, the following testimony of Woodrow Maples, a witness for the State: “I know where Vera Grant lives. On Saturday night, March 25, 1952, the same night that C. T. Nelson got shot, I passed Vera Grant’s house. I was traveling on a tractor and Jessie Porterman was with me. We did not notice anything unusual as we passed. We were going from the river to home, and that was after dark.” The court did not err in admitting such testimony, which did not tend to harm or prejudice the defendant.

4. In the fourth special ground, the defendant assigns error on the following testimony of the State’s witness Porterman: [424]*424“I know where Vera Grant lives. On the night that O. T. Nelson got shot, I remember that night. One Saturday night four or five weeks ago; I remember the night they said he got shot. It was on Saturday night, March 24th. I passed Vera Grant’s house that night on a tractor between ten and eleven. We were coming from the river, going home. Maples and myself.” There is no merit in the defendant’s contention that such evidence was illegally admitted and was harmful and prejudicial to him, being irrelevant and not illustrative of any issue involved.

5. In the fifth special ground the defendant assigns error on the court’s allowing the witness Darley to testify for the State, contending that he objected thereto on the ground that Darley had sat at the table with the solicitor during the entire trial and had aided in the selection of the jury, that his name was not on the indictment as a witness, and that he remained in the courtroom during the trial, being offered as a witness for the State at the conclusion of the defendant’s evidence. This ground is not insisted upon nor mentioned at all in the defendant’s brief and argument in this court, and will be treated as abandoned.

6. The evidence tended to show: that the defendant was at the home of the mother-in-law of C. T. Nelson, Vera Grant; that he was out in the yard with Nelson and two other men, and they were talking; that the defendant had a pistol and was drinking and cursing; that the man Nelson went into Vera Grant’s kitchen and asked her to fix him something to eat, and while he was in there the defendant came in; that he had, while in the yard, pulled out his pistol and stated that he was going to shoot at some white men who were passing by the house on a tractor; that Vera Grant tried to get the defendant to leave the house and he would not go; that two others came up, R. B. Page and Lucy Page, who were the defendant’s aunt and uncle, and they tried to get the defendant to leave, but he remained in there "cussing and raising sand”; and that the witness, C. T. Nelson, then “got him and just pushed him out of the door and shut the door, and when he got outside, he began to shoot.” It appeared that Nelson and his mother-in-law, Vera Grant, wanted “him out because he was cursing and raising sand in the house.” The evidence authorized the jury to find that, when the defendant was gotten out of'the house of Vera Grant, “He started [425]*425shooting . . and shot three times,” and one of the shots struck the witness, C. T. Nelson. Henry Lee Crump testified on cross-examination that Nelson “had a knife in his hand when they (Nelson and defendant) were back there fussing and fighting . . and he was after Fox with a knife. And that was when Fox went out the door—C. T. had a knife after him—and then when he got out, that is when he shot.” Another witness for the State, C. J. Crump, also testified on cross-examination that Nelson had a pocketknife, and that the defendant “kept on backing out of the house and they kept coming on to him, and just about the time he got to the house or the porch, he started shooting . . The knife was shut.” Henry Lee Crump, brother of C. J. Crump, was recalled, and he testified that “the knife was open." Vera Grant testified that she wanted the defendant out of her house because she did not want any fussing or fighting there and she could not get him out by herself, and “I asked for some help and he (Nelson) helped me to put him (defendant) out.” On cross-examination, she said, “After this shot was fired and this door flew open, and I saw Fox standing on the porch, he didn’t attempt to shoot us . . if he wanted to kill somebody, he could have fired right then.” There was testimony by the aunt of the defendant that Nelson and others were attacking the defendant and tore his shirt, and Nelson drew a knife and tried to stab him.

The jury found the defendant guilty of shooting at another. Under the evidence the jury could have found the defendant guilty of assault with intent to kill.

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Related

Saylor v. State
93 S.E.2d 196 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1956)

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Bluebook (online)
74 S.E.2d 138, 87 Ga. App. 422, 1953 Ga. App. LEXIS 759, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pate-v-state-gactapp-1953.