68 Fla. 120 | Fla. | 1914
Tom Pickett and Loren Pickett were jointly indicted for the murder of Frank Goodwin. A severance was gratned. Tom Pickett was convicted of murder in the second degree and took writ of error. The contentions here are that the trial court erred in admitting stated testimony, in giving and in refusing to give designated charges and in denying a motion for new trial, one ground of the motion being that the verdict is contrary to the evidence.
Under the laws of this State a judgment should not be
The accused parties are brothers who were near together at a previous controversy on the same day between the deceased and Loren Pickett'and it was not error to admit testimony that at such previous meeting Loren said to the deceased “I (or we) will get you when I (or we) get on the other side of the river.” Tom was .near enough to hear this remark of Loren, and was with Loren on the other side of the river when the homicide occured. The jury was legally warranted in finding a verdict of murder in the second degree on the testimony of the defendant and other witnesses, rather than an acquittal on the ground of justifiable homicide as claimed by the plaintiff in error on the theory that he shot the deceased in defending his brother with whom the deceased was at the time having a second difficulty.
The judgment is affirmed.