State v. Romano

83 P. 1, 41 Wash. 241, 1905 Wash. LEXIS 1097
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 28, 1905
DocketNo. 5826
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 83 P. 1 (State v. Romano) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Romano, 83 P. 1, 41 Wash. 241, 1905 Wash. LEXIS 1097 (Wash. 1905).

Opinions

Crow, J.

Appellant Matteo Romano was convicted, in the superior court of King county, of the crime of assault with intent to commit murder, and has appealed to this court.

About two o’clock on the morning of March 19, 1904, while Sebastian TJcci, the prosecuting witness, was asleep in his room, in the city of Seattle, some unknown person made an attack upon him, with a sharp instrument, cutting his throat, and immediately thereafter shot him in the back. lie did not see, nor was he able to identify, his assailant. On May 12, 1904, appellant was arrested and charged with said crime. The evidence shows that, prior to his arrest, in conversations with Mrs. Sebastian TJcci, the divorced wife, and Mrs. Concheta Rosetta, the daughter of said Sebastian TJcci, appellant admitted he had made said assault. Two days after his arrest, the police officers found a shotgun and empty shell in his room, which were admitted as evidence. Fifty or sixty shot taken from Ucei’s wound, of the size of those that had been contained in the empty shell, were also admitted ¡as evidence. Officer Adams, who arrested appellant, testified that, while appellant was on the way to prison, he said to John Rosetta, husband of Concheta Rosetta, “I will cut your throat if I get out of this. I may get a year but I will cut your throat,” and that he also made angry statements, to said Rosetta in the Italian language which Adams could not understand.

From the testimony of appellant, it appears that he claims to have sustained criminal relations with said Ooncheta Rosetta, for a considerable period of time prior to his arrest; also, that much bitterness and animosity existed between him and said John Rosetta. He evidently regarded John Rosetta and his wife as being responsible for his arrest. John Rosetta testified that, while appellant was in the custody of officer Adams, he, speaking in the Italian language, said “I may get two' or three years, but when I get back I will do the same to you as I did to your father-in-law.” Mrs. Sebastian Hcci, divorced wife of the prosecuting witness, testi[243]*243fied to the admission made to her by appellant; and Mrs. Ooncheta Rosetta, daughter of the prosecuting witness, testified that about a month previous to his arrest appellant had told her that, if she did not leave her husband and live with him, he would do the same to her as he had to her father, and that he had cut and shot her father. It applears that on the day of his arrest appellant was expected to call at the house of Concheta Rosetta, and that she, being fearful of an assault, caused officer Adams to be notified, who, as the result of such notice, was 'present and arrested appellant when he arrived, at which time appellant was heavily armed.

Appellant has made three assignments of error: Pirst, that the court erred in giving the following as a portion of one of the instructions to the jury: “And I further charge you that every sane person is presumed to intend the natural and ordinary consequences of his voluntary act ;” second, that the court should have set aside the verdict and granted a new trial, for the reason that the information does not charge appellant with shooting the prosecuting witness, and that the court therefore erred in admitting the shotgun in evidence; third, that the court erred in refusing to set aside the verdict for insufficiency of evidence as to the identity of the person who made the assault.

Appellant evidently bases his main reliance for a reversal upon his exception to the charge of the court on the question of intent, citing the case of State v. Dolan, 17 Wash. 499, 50 Pac. 472, and in his opening brief says:

“The prosecuting witness was not murdered, and the above instruction as applied to the facts of this case, left the jury to understand that, as death might have resulted as the natural consequence of the assault, the law presumes that he intended that such consequences should follow. If death had resulted from the act, the instructions would have been applicable, but this court has held that such an instruction is inap>plicable in the case of assault where death did not result, and that the intent to murder must be established as any other fact.”

[244]*244Before discussing the instructions in State v. Dolan, supra, or those in the case at bar, we call attention to a material variance of the information in the Dolan case from the one upon which appellant has been prosecuted. In State v. Ackles, 8 Wash. 462, 36 Pac. 597, this court held that, on the information then under consideration, which charged that the defendant “did unlawfully, purposely and of his premeditated malice, and with intent, to murder, assault and shoot one Benjamin Franklin with a deadly weapon, . „ with intent to murder the said Benjamin Franklin,” said defendant could not be convicted of the crime of making an assault with a deadly weapon with intent to' do’ bodily harm, for the reason that the latter crime was not included in the information. Anders, J., there speaking for this court, said:

“While it is true that the jury may find a defendant not. guilty of the crime charged, but guilty of an offense of lesser degree, or of an offense necessarily included within that charged, it is also true that 'accusation must precede conviction,’ and that no one can legally be convicted of an offense not properly alleged. The accused, in criminal prosecutions, has a constitutional right to be apprised of the nature and cause of the accusation against him. Const., art. 1, § 22. And this can only be made known by setting forth in the indictment or information every fact constituting an element of the offense charged. This doctrine is elementary and of universal application, and is founded on the plainest principle of justice. Tested by this rule we think the verdict and judgment in this case were erroneous, and must be set aside. Under our statute, an assault with a .deadly weapon with intent to inflict upon the person of another a bodily injury is made a felony only upon the express condition that the assault is without considerable provocation, or where the circumstances of the assault show a wilful, malignant and abandoned heart.”

The information in State v. Ackles, supra, which is set forth at page 463 of the opinion, discloses an utter absence of any allegation that the assault was without any considerable provocation, or that it was the impulse of a wilful, [245]*245abandoned or malignant heart. Bal. Code, § 7058. This couid, therefore, reversed the final judgment entered on a verdict finding the defendant guilty of the. lesser crime of an assault with a deadly weapon with intent to do bodily harm. In State v. Young, 22 Wash. 273, 60 Pac. 650, the defendant was prosecuted upon an information charging him with the crime- of making an assault upon- the prosecuting witness with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and murder said prosecuting witness. But an examination of -the information, which appears in the opinion, will show that, by reason of the use of the words, “with the intent aforesaid, no considerable provocation appearing therefor,” it was sufficient to sustain a conviction of the lesser crime of assault with intent to do bodily harm. The trial court, however, refused to instruct the jury that they could find the defendant guilty of such lesser crime, and this court, speahing through Dunbar, J., held such refusal to be prejudicial error, saying:

“The refusal of the court to give this instruction is alleged here as error.

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

Related

State v. Howard
288 P. 236 (Washington Supreme Court, 1930)
Weisenbach v. State
119 N.W. 843 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1909)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
83 P. 1, 41 Wash. 241, 1905 Wash. LEXIS 1097, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-romano-wash-1905.