Titshaw v. State
Titshaw v. State
Opinion of the Court
Ray Titshaw was tried under two indictments, one charging him with committing the crime of assault with intent to murder by shooting Chester Camp with a shotgun, and the other with committing assault with intent to murder by shooting Joe B. Camp Jr. with a shotgun. The jury found the defendant guilty of “shooting at another,” under each indictment, and, his motion for a new trial being overruled, he excepted.
It appears from the evidence that the house in which Mrs. Martha A. Titshaw and her son, Ray Titshaw, were living had been sold under some sort of foreclosure proceeding, and that the
The following testimony of Chester Camp sufficiently shows the State’s version of the shooting: “We walked up on the porch and knocked on the door and no one answered, and knocked on the door the second time, and Bay says: 'What do you want?’ He [Joe] says: 'I want to see Mrs. Titshaw.’ And Bay says: 'Have you got the law with you?’ And Joe says: 'No, if you want to do what is right, won’t need no law.’ And he shot us both. . ’. We were not armed, and we didn’t do anything to Bay Titshaw to cause him to shoot us. We were over on a peaceful mission and didn’t have any guns with us. We didn’t have any notice that we were going to be shot. . . Later I saw that the door had two cracks in it, and you could see up to my knees and see up to my brother’s knees, and the person back of the door could see how many people were out there, but from the outside you couldn’t see inside on account of the darkness. It’s about five feet high from the floor where one of the shots went in, and the other a little over
G. D. Still, sworn for the defendant, testified in part that he was present on the first visit of the Camp boys to the Titshaw home, and that “the least boy [Joe B. Camp Jr.] . . said they had bought the place and was going to move there and work it or wade through blood knee deep, . . said they were going to move in Monday and they better get out Saturday;” and that “Bay was in the house in the door and Boy stood there and didn’t open his mouth.”
Mrs. Titshaw, the mother of Bay and Boy Titshaw, testified that when the Camp boys came to her home Friday and told her “they had bought the place,” she said: “This is my place, .paid for with my inheritance from my people.” Mrs. Titshaw. continued to testify as follows: “So when they got in front of the porch . . they stopped and began multiplying words, and said: 'I am coming to take possession of this property or wade through blood to my knees, and, if it takes it, to my neck.’ . . So on Monday morning they came to my front door and began to talk to my son Bay. . . So I heard my son Bay say: 'Please go away, for my mother don’t want to be worried any more.’ . . I heard jerking and surging at the door. I got half way and two shots were fired through the door.”
The defendant began his statement to the jury with a long and vivid account of how the father of the Camp boys stopped him on the road “two years ago” and beat him unmercifully. He then proceeded to state to the jury that the Camp boys came to his mother’s home on Friday when he was present; that Joe had a pistol in his pocket, and said, “You better be moving tomorrow; me and my father are coming to move you Monday if it takes blood up to my knees or up to my neck.” In regard to the actual shooting, the defendant stated to the jury: “Monday morning they came back and knocked on the door. . . And he says: 'Hello Bay.’ I says: 'Who is that?’ He says: 'Joe and Chester Camp.’ I says: 'Have you got the law with you?’ He says: 'We are the law ourselves, open the door.’ I'says: 'No, you better be leaving here if you don’t want to have trouble;’ and he
Felker Lewis testified in part: “I have heard her [Mrs. Titshaw’s] condition is highly nervous, and I have heard that she has been sent to the asylum twice. She is very old.”
In its last analysis, the question presented by the general grounds .and the last four special grounds of the motion for a new trial is whether or not the offense of “shooting at another” was in the case. If it was not, the verdict can not stand and the court’s charges upon that subject -were unwarranted and erroneous. It is true that “a verdict of shooting at another is not a legal finding where the evidence demands the conclusion that the defendant was either guilty of assault with intent to murder, or was not guilty at all.” Fallon v. State, 5 Ga. App. 659, 661 (63 S. E. 806), and cit. It is of course equally true that in such a case it would be error for the court to charge upon shooting at another. To sustain their contention, counsel for movant rely upon the leading case of Kendrick v. State, 113 Ga. 759, 761 (39 S. E. 286), where the court said: “The evidence for the State, if credible, absolutely demanded a verdict of guilty of assault with intent to murder. The defendant introduced no evidence, but simply made a statement in which he denied any connection whatever with the alleged assault, and set up an alibi. If' the jury believed the testimony for the State, they should have convicted the accused of assault with intent to murder, the crime charged in the indictment. If they believed the statement of the prisoner, they should have acquitted him entirely. Under the testimony and the statement, the issue was clear cut: guilty of assault with intent to murder, or guilty of nothing. There was no middle ground.” “A person is guilty of the statutory offense of shooting at another when he, without justification, shoots at another, without the intention of committing
The facts of the case at bar completely differentiate it from Kendrich v. State, supra, and similar cases. In the instant case the State -introduced numerous witnesses, and the defendant introduced several witnesses and made a long statement to the jury. In considering the case, we must look to the entire brief of evidence, realizing that the jury had the right to reach any material conclusion warranted by the evidence and the defendant’s statement, or by the evidence or the defendant’s statement, or by a part of the evidence, or by a part of the defendant’s statement. We have undertaken to set out the material parts of the evidence and the defendant’s statement with sufficient fulness to illustrate the issues in the case and avoid repetition. Applying the law to the facts of the case, we are satisfied that the jury were warranted in concluding (a) that the shooting was not justifiable; (b) that there was no intention to kill, and, therefore, no assault with intent to
The first special ground is in the following language: “Because the court erred in charging the jury as follows: cJustification homicide is the killing of a human being by commandment of the law in execution of human justice; by permission of the law in advancement of public justice; in self-defense of. habitation, property or person, against one who manifestly intends and endeavors, by violence or surprise, to commit a felony on either; or against any person who manifestly intends and endeavors in a riotous and tumultuous manner, to enter the habitation of another for the purpose of assaulting or offering personal violence to any person dwelling or being therein. If after persuasion, remonstrance, or other gentle measures used, a forcible attack and invasion on the property or habitation of another can not be prevented, it shall be justifiable homicide to kill the person so forcibly attacking and invading the property or habitation of another.’ Said charge was error for the reason that it erroneously instructed the jury that in order for the defendant to be justified in having shot it was necessary to have shot the person whom he was charged with having shot, under the following circumstances: 1. That such person was manifestly intending or endeavoring by violence or surprise to commit a felony, either on the, defendant or his habitation. 2. That such person in a riotous and tumultuous manner, to enter the habitation of the defendant for the purpose of assardting or offering personal violenqe to some person, dwelling or being therein. Then, under the law, the defendant was justifiable in. shooting the person he was charged with having shot, if after persuasion, remonstrance, or other gentle measures by the defendant, a forcible invasion of the defendant’s habitation was being made by said per
The second special ground complains of the following charge of the court: “Now I further charge you, if the circumstances surrounding the defendant, as they appeared to him at the time, were sufficient to excite the fears of a reasonable man, the tilling would be attributed to them, in the absence of proof to the contrary, and the defendant therefore excused for his conduct.” It is insisted that the charge was erroneous “because it entirely deprived him [the defendant] of the defense he had under the law of the fears of a reasonable man, if the jury should believe that there was evidence to the contrary, whether the jury believed such evidence to be true or not.” In immediate connection with the foregoing quoted matter, and as a composite part of the charge upon “reasonable fears,” the court continued as follows: “The sufficiency of the fears is a question for the jury. The defendant was justifiable if there be a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury as to
In conclusion, we hold that .the trial judge did not commit reversible error for any reason assigned in the motion for a new trial.
Judgment affirmed.
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- TITSHAW v. State
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