8 Ind. 290 | Ind. | 1856
This prosecution is founded on section 9, of the act defining felonies, &c., which declares that, “ Every person who shall perpetrate an assault, or an assault and battery, with an intent to commit a felony, shall, upon conviction thereof, be imprisoned in the State prison,” &e. 2 li. S. p. 397. The charge in the indictment is that Walker, the defendant, on, &c., at, &c., committed an assault and battery on Charles Anderson, with intent him, the said Chdrles Anderson, to kill and murder, &c. Plea, not guilty. Verdict for the State. New trial refused, and judgment.
The facts are substantially these: Anderson, about noon on the 16th of April, 1856, went to the defendant’s house in the city of Mvansville, where he found him and one'Mitchell, sitting with their shoes off, and requested them to go with him to the river and help him to launch his skiff. Mitchell slipped on a pair of shoes and started with him, Anderson, defendant saying at the time that he would be along presently. Milchdl land Anderson went down to the skiff, where they casually met with one James Pulman. They were standing in a crowd at the'skiff, with their backs to the river bank. "While they were thus standing together, the defendant was seen to run with a gun in his hands, from his house to the bank of the river, and when he got there, to fire at-some object below the bank. By this shot Anderson and
The evidence being closed, the Court charged the jury that, “If the defendant fired into the crowd in question, of which Anderson, vthe prosecuting witness was one, with the deliberate intention, either formed at the time or previously, of killing and murdering some one of the crowd, and that Anderson received a portion of the shot and contents of said gun, and was wounded thereby, it will be sufficient to establish the assault and battery with the intent charged. And if the case is otherwise made out, it will be the duty of the jury to find the defendant guilty as charged in the indictment.” The appellant contends that the intent to murder is not proved as laid in the indictment, and that the conviction is therefore erroneous. It is true, the defendant’s declarations, which are to some extent corroborated, conduce to show that he really intended to murder Mitchell; but these declarations are not the only evidence in the case. If from the battery committed by the defendant, death had ensued, the evidence in the record would, no doubt, be sufficient to have sustained a prosecution against him for the murder of Anderson. The intent to commit such felony would have been inferred from his act of shooting into the crowd; because every man is supposed to intend the necessary conse
The judgment is affirmed with costs.