Walton v. StateWalton v. State
- Reporters:
- , ,
- Before:
- Atkinson
2. If one intentionally shoots another with a pistol, and the person shot dies from the wound, this presents no theory of involuntary manslaughter. Norton v. State, 137 Ga. 842 (4) (74 S.E. 759).
3. Under the evidence, the homicide was either murder or accidental homicide within the meaning of the Code,
4. The court instructed the jury: “The court charges you, gentlemen, the meaning of justifiable homicide. Justifiable homicide is the killing of a human being by commandment of the law, in the execution of public justice, by permission of the law in the advancement of public justice, in self-defense, or in defense of habitation, property, or person against one who manifestly intends or endeavors by violence or surprise, to commit a felony on either, or against any persons who manifestly intend and endeavor in a riotous or tumultuous manner to enter the habitation of another, for the purpose of assaulting or offering personal
5. On application of the rulings stated above to the pleadings and the evidence, the jury was authorized to return the verdict declaring the defendant guilty, with a recommendation; and there was no error in refusing a new trial.
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.
Willie Walton Jr. was indicted for murder by shooting Jimmie Walton with a pistol. The jury returned a verdict finding the defendant guilty and recommending that he be punished by imprisonment for life in the penitentiary. The exception is to a judgment refusing a new trial. On the trial it appeared that the defendant and the deceased were young negro men and brothers; and that the homicide was committed in the manner described, and in the county alleged in the indictment. Daisy Belle Edwards a witness for the State, testified in part as follows. On the day in question Jimmie carried witness in an automobile to the town of Parrott. Others in the automobile were Will Walton Sr. (father of defendant and deceased), a sister of witness, and another boy. The party arrived about four o‘clock in the afternoon. Witness and Jimmie were walking along a street when they saw defendant “just walking around.” Witness saw defendant and Jimmie in conversation for a few minutes, but did not know the conversation. Witness and
Jim Mack Joines testified, in part: “On that occasion, I was coming along there in front of Cook Bros. Store, where it happened. This happened right side of a car. Before this took place, I was just coming along there and some negroes was there facing one another. . . I didn‘t see but three there. There were two men and one woman. The woman was in the car. The two men were standing in front of the car, and she was sitting with her feet on the running board. I did not see the shot when it fired. I heard it. I heard a negro holler. . . After the negro was shot, Willie Walton grabbed him and come back of the car with him and said, `Jimmy, you are shot. Somebody shot you,’ and dropped him and run. That‘s what Willie Walton told Jimmy Walton. He ran across the highway to Mr. Perry‘s filling-station. After that, he started back up there and got as far as the highway and stopped. He didn‘t ever come back where his brother was.” On cross-examination witness testified: “I was about fifteen feet, I guess, from that car when the shot was fired. A little further than from you to me. . . I don‘t know how it happened. No sir, I didn‘t hear Willie say, `Oh Lord, I shot my brother.’ I heard the boy holler that got killed. No sir, I didn‘t hear Willie holler. And I don‘t know how it occurred. And I say, Willie broke and run. And he had something in his hand and throwed it away.”
Joe Moore testified, in part: “I made an examination of the wound. He was shot through the heart. . . The bullet went straight in.” Otis Sherman testified, in part: “I saw Jimmy Walton and Willie Walton just before this shooting took place. . . They were out there across the railroad in a little park. Willie asked him — he asked him to give him two dollars to get his shoes out of the post-office, and he said that he didn‘t have it, and that he would pay him next week. . . I did not stop and listen to the conversation. Yes, sir, that was everything I heard. And I had got about thirty-five yards before I heard the shot.”
In his statement before the jury the defendant said: “Me and him was standing down there talking, and he asked me to loan him two dollars to get a package out of the post-office, and I told him I didn‘t have it, that I would give it to him Monday; and I went back, and me and Jack got together, and we come back, and him and
Hub Bolton, the deputy sheriff, testified as to a statement made by defendant to him: “He said he had his pistol stuck right up in his waist, with the barrel sticking up, and it went off and killed his brother. He didn‘t say nothing about unbreaching it, but said that he had it in his waist, with the barrel sticking up. The way I got the pistol, I found it in Mr. Whaley‘s garden. He carried me and showed me right where the pistol was. . . When I walked up there and asked Daisy Belle Edwards about this, she said she seen it. She said that day that Willie Walton came up there and hollered and shot his brother, and that was all that was said. I did not threaten her in any way to get her to make that statement to me. Mr. George Perry was not there. Nobody there did not threaten her or tell her what to say. That was, I reckon, forty or fifty minutes after the shooting.” J. A. Turner, sheriff, testified: “I had a conversation with him after he was arrested. . . He did not say anything about having his gun out showing it to his brother and it went off. He said he had it in his overall pocket, and it went off and shot his brother. . . He said he went to pull it out and it went off and shot him.” George Perry testified: “I didn‘t tell Daisy Belle Edwards that if she didn‘t come in and testify before the grand jury, and testify just exactly like she told Mr. Bolton about this crime, that I would be sitting in the grand-jury room, and would put her in jail if she didn‘t. I didn‘t tell her anything about it. I asked her about some more witnesses. I did not tell her what to testify in this case; the case has never been mentioned before me. I didn‘t tell her that if she didn‘t tell what she told that night, that I would be in the grand-jury room and would do something to her, never mentioned it to her.” On cross examination he testified: “Jimmy Walton did not live on my place. He lived with his daddy. He worked for me for wages six months this year. I thought a heap of him; he was all right.