State v. Mahaney
State v. Mahaney
Opinion of the Court
— The defendant Mahanéy was indicted at the April term, 1894, of the circuit court of Maries county, but he left the country, and was not apprehended until the year 1900. This indictment was misplaced and could not be found, so another indictment was preferred for the same offense in October, 1900, and thereafter the first indictment was-found.
The facts as disclosed by the record are, that on the night of the twenty-third of November, 1893, at Joyce’s house, in the country, a dance was to be held and that the neighbors, men and women, had gathered there. Joyce himself had been off at work some place and came in shortly after night, bringing some candy for his little children. It seems that Joyce had two stepsons, Jim and Charlie Moman, and they were present when Joyce returned. Jim Moman wanted some of the candy and Joyce refused to give it to him and Jim became quarrelsome, and his brother remonstrated with him, and then the brothers had some trouble; then one Brown, who was present began to joke Jim Moman, and both of the boys turned on him, and an altercation ensued.
Defendant departed and went to- his uncle’s, and soon after left the country. He returned in 1895 and in 1896, but did not give himself up as he claimed the feeling was hostile to him and he would not give himself up for trial because he would not get a fair and impartial hearing, and on the ad
The evidence of the defendant tended to show that Cress had a knife in his hand at the time he was quarreling with George Mahaney, the defendant’s brother, and that about the time he ceased quarreling with- George he started toward the defendant, and that Jim Moman also started toward the defendant threatening to lick him.
There was a conflict in the testimony of the State and tire defense as to whether Cress was shot on the inside or the outside of the fence. The defendant claimed, and several of his witnesses testified, that Cress had gotten over the fence and was shot on the outside after being warned by defendant not to follow him over the fence. Defendant himself testified that Jim Moman struck at him with a knife as he, the defendant, got over the fence. There was some evidence of bad feeling between the Mahaney boys and the Moman boys and Cress and some others.
The defendant was finally located, in the year 1900, in Oklahoma, and arrested and brought back to Maries county and tried and convicted of manslaughter in the fourth degree and sentenced to two years in the penitentiary.
After the usual motions were made and overruled, he perfected his appeal to this court, assigning various grounds of error in the action of the lower court at the trial. The defendant is not represented in this court, but we have gone through the record with much care in order to discover if possible any error prejudicial to defendant, and have been unable to do so. In the motion for r_ew trial many errors are assigned, but without anything upon which to bottom them. In the motion in arrest the sufficiency of the indictment is questioned, but the grounds assigned are untenable, as it is in form often approved by this court. The defendant had a fair trial and had
Reference
- Full Case Name
- State v. MAHANEY
- Status
- Published