State v. Benge
State v. Benge
Opinion of the Court
Indicted under G.S. 14-17 for second degree murder in the death of Howard James Anderson and tried for voluntary manslaughter, defendant, who did not testify, was convicted of
According to State v. Greene, 314 N.C. 649, 336 S.E. 2d 87 (1985), that the killing in an involuntary manslaughter case was unlawful can be proved by showing either that the killing was caused by an unlawful act not amounting to a felony, or that it was the result of criminally negligent or culpable conduct. Neither cause was established by the evidence presented in this case, which in pertinent part was as follows: During the night involved Anderson’s sister, who lived next door, heard noises from Anderson’s house indicating a scuffle and a gunshot, and after trying to phone him and getting a busy signal she called the Gastonia police; the officers found Anderson lying on a couch wounded in the abdomen and with a .25 caliber automatic pistol ready to fire in his pocket. Anderson later told an emergency medical technician, “He shot me with my own gun”; and his hospital record shows that he had a blood alcohol level of 0.15. A prostitute testified that during the afternoon following the shooting defendant came to her motel room with a shotgun (which she and a friend later sold for money to buy narcotics and was recovered by the police and identified as belonging to Anderson) and told her that: “Mr. Anderson had invited him in for a drink and that someone had been prowling around his house and that he gave Mr. Benge this gun and said if anyone tried to break in to shoot him . . . that Mr. Anderson also had a gun in his hand and that he had been drinking a little bit, and he had pointed the gun toward George [defendant], and George asked him to put it down, and so he did, but then he brought the gun back up, and George asked him to put it down again, and he wouldn’t, and that’s when George said he shot him.”
Thus, the judgment of the trial court is vacated and the defendant is hereby ordered discharged.
Vacated.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.