Ray v. State

61 S.E.2d 779, 82 Ga. App. 550, 1950 Ga. App. LEXIS 1160
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedOctober 26, 1950
Docket33095
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 61 S.E.2d 779 (Ray 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
Ray v. State, 61 S.E.2d 779, 82 Ga. App. 550, 1950 Ga. App. LEXIS 1160 (Ga. Ct. App. 1950).

Opinion

MacIntyre, P. J.

Charles Ray was indicted for assault with intent to murder Willie D. Lindsey. Upon.his trial he was convicted of “shooting at another” and his punishment was fixed at not less than one year and not more than four years in the penitentiary. His motion for a new trial, based upon the usual general grounds and two special grounds, was overruled and he excepted.

While it appeared from the evidence that the defendant and the prosecutor were good friends and on the best of terms at the time of the shooting, and though the evidence does not reveal any motive for the shooting, there was sufficient evidence to authorize the verdict of guilty of shooting at another. The prosecutor, Willie D. Lindsey, testified that on the evening on which he was shot by the defendant he had gone into the defendant’s place of business and the defendant “was down on his knees—looked like he was asleep, and I touched him on his hat to attract his attention and also to let him know that I was going to the lavatory. He reached for his pistol, thumb cocked it, and shot me above the waist.” At one point in the cross-examination the prosecutor testified: “I was not accidentally [shot]—but intentionally shot, and what I want to know is why he did shoot me . . Well, that’s the way he done it—just looked right at me and shot me.” At one point in his statement to the jury the defendant stated: “When he [the prosecutor] asked me about going to the rest room, I told him someone was back there. He tipped me on the hat and said, ‘What.’ I said, ‘Someone is back there.’ He says, ‘I’m coming back there and get you,’ and I says, ‘Go on boy, don’t fool with me.’ I reached down for the gun—the gun was in a sack—and if I had wanted to done anything to the man, I was in my own place.” From this evidence the jury were authorized to infer that the defendant pointed the pistol at the [552]*552prosecutor, pulled the trigger, and fired, striking the prosecutor, and that the defendant intended to shoot the prosecutor. The evidence authorized the verdict of shooting at another not in his own defense, and the court did not err in overruling the motion for a new trial on the general grounds.

The court charged specifically on the law of assault with intent to murder and that there must be a specific intent to kill before the jury could find the defendant guilty of an assault with mtent to murder; the court then charged the jury on the law of shooting another not in one’s own defense in which the court charged that the shooting must have been intended but was not done with intent to kill; and thereafter the court charged on the law of accident, “A person shall not be found guilty of any crime or misdemeanor committed by misfortune or accident, and where it satisfactorily appears there was no evil design, or intention, or culpable neglect,” which latter charge is in the language of Code § 26-404. Bearing in mind that the court had already dealt specifically with the question of intent as it related to the offense of assault with intent to murder and as it related to the offense of shooting at another not in one’s own defense, we think it was not reversible error for the court, in connection with those instructions, to charge further on the law of accident that: “an accident is an event that takes place without one’s foresight or expectation. That which takes place or begins to exist without design. To absolve one from guilt of crime, it must not only appear that there was no evil design, but that there was no culpable neglect. And, in that connection, the court charges you that, if you find that the defendant pointed a weapon at the deceased [prosecutor ?] and pulled the trigger and fired, then the result of sfich conduct, under the law, would not be an accident.”

The jury could not have been misled by the obvious verbal, inaccuracy, resulting from a “slip of the tongue,” in The court’s inadvertent use of the word “deceased” instead of “prosecutor.” The prosecutor was present in the courtroom, testified on the stand as the person who had been shot by the defendant, and obviously was not deceased. The word which was changed inadvertently by the court does not so obscure the sense of the charge that a juror or person of ordinary intelligence could [553]*553not have ascertained the court’s meaning with certainty and a new trial cannot be granted for this slip of the tongue which was corrected by the necessary intendment of the court’s instructions. Walraven v. Walraven, 76 Ga. App. 713, 719 (47 S. E. 2d, 148).

We think that under the charge as a whole the jury understood that if it found that the defendant pointed a pistol at the prosecutor intending or not intending to kill him and pulled the trigger and fired, the result of such conduct would not be an accident; and, that if the intent to kill was absent they would not be authorized to find the defendant guilty of assault with intent to murder; but that they might, if in their opinion, the facts, under the' law as given them in charge, justified it, convict him of the offense of shooting at another not in his own defense, and obviously the jury so understood as it returned a verdict of guilty of shooting at another. Baker v. State, 12 Ga. App. 553 (3) (77 S. E. 884); Cook v. State, 93 Ga. 201, 202 (18 S. E. 823); Pool v. State, 87 Ga. 527 (13 S.’E. 556); Wallace v. State, 95 Ga. 470 (20 S. E. 250); Leonard v. State, 133 Ga. 435 (66 S. E. 251); Browning v. State, 31 Ga. App. 150 (3) (120 S. E. 649). This charge was not erroneous for the reason urged by the defendant that it “placed an undue burden on the defendant by the complete elimination from t'Hé consideration of the jury of intent, design, and culpable hé'gl'é'cit1 thereby making the pointing of a pistol, without intent, design', and culpable neglect, the pulling of a trigger and firing of a pistol without evil design and culpable neglect, [a] crime under the laws of Georgia.”

Special ground 2 is based upon the theory of newly discovered evidence. It appears from the record that Willie D. Lindsey, the prosecutor, testified in part: “Dr. Carl Pittman treated me at the Tift County Hospital where I was laid up for twenty-eight (28) days as a result of this wound. My bill totaled $766 and a few cents. Charles Hay [the defendant] gave me no indication as to why he shot me, other than my going in there and tapping him on the hat and asking him if I could go to the lavatory? . . As I know of, there was no horseplay or fun. I did not make the remark to Charles— 'I am coming back there and get you.’ The pistol was nót in [554]*554a paper sack and he wasn’t playing—it was in his hand and he thumb cocked it and shot me . . I was not accidentally'—■ but intentionally shot, and what I want to know is why he did shoot me? Well, that’s the way he done it—just looked right at me and shot me.”

Mose Alexander, a witness for the State, testified in part: “What happened in my presence—when we walked in—-we walked in the door and Charles was leaning on the counter, like this—I don’t know what he was doing, and Willie D. tipped him on the hat and I heard the pistol say, ‘Bow,’ and then Willie D. says, ‘Boy, you done shot me,’ and then Charles said, ‘Take him to the hospital.’ And us took him to the hospital in my car—that’s all I knows—Willie D. and I were going back to the rest room. I reckon Willie D. mentioned it to him—he tipped him on the hat—I reckon he thought he was sleep but he was not sleep. He only said that he was going in the back.”

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Bluebook (online)
61 S.E.2d 779, 82 Ga. App. 550, 1950 Ga. App. LEXIS 1160, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ray-v-state-gactapp-1950.