Bowens v. State, 28930
Citation | 231 Ind. 559,109 N.E.2d 91 |
Decision Date | 12 December 1952 |
Docket Number | No. 28930,28930 |
Parties | BOWENS v. STATE. |
Court | Supreme Court of Indiana |
Thomas M. Crowdus, Indianapolis, for appellant.
J. Emmett McManamon, Atty. Gen., John Ready O'Connor, William T. McClain and Thos. J. Faulconer, III, Deputy Attys. Gen., for appellee.
Appellant was charged by indictment with murder in the first degree, under § 10-3401, Burns' 1942 Replacement. He was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury, and was sentenced to serve not less than two nor more than twenty-one years in the Indiana State Prison. From a judgment on the verdict, he presents this appeal.
The sole assignment of error is the overruling of appellant's motion for new trial. Under this assignment, appellant asserts that the verdict was not sustained by sufficient evidence and was contrary to law.
Appellant contends that the evidence shows without conflict that his killing of the deceased was done in self-defense.
The evidence most favorable to appellee reveals that appellant, on December 2, 1950, met his wife and Raymond Bowens in a shoe repair shop; that the three went to the home of appellant where they drank some whiskey; that during the evening both appellant and the deceased, Raymond Bowens, cried; that appellant slapped his wife while arguing over money, and Raymond Bowens protested. The deceased was then going to take appellant's wife 'out of there'; that she got her coat 'and was going to carry Raymond out of there.' Appellant then ran upstairs for his gun, and when his wife next saw him he was on the third step from the top with the gun in his hand. She then ran outside. The deceased was standing by the kitchen door with his hat and coat on. Appellant's wife pleaded with the deceased to come out. In answer to the question: 'Did you see him then go out?' she answered: She said that she then heard a gunshot and ran to call the police. She saw her husband leave the house. He climbed over the woodshed.
Raymond Bowens, the deceased, was found lying on the kitchen floor, with his head in the doorway, about ten feet from the stairway, with an open knife a few inches south of his right hand, and with a gunshot wound in his head, from which he died on December 3, 1950. An empty shotgun shell was found near the stairway. Appellant admitted that he was standing on the stairway and shot the deceased. Appellant was unharmed, and the knife found near the deceased had nothing on it. In a conversation, the wife of appellant stated to her husband:
Self-defense is an ultimate fact solely for the determination of the jury. Landreth v. State, 1930, 201 Ind. 691, 171 N.E. 192, 72 A.L.R. 891; 26 Am.Jur., Homicide, § 512, p. 511.
This court said, in Myers v. State, 1922, 192 Ind. 592, 594, 137 N.E. 547, 548, 24 A.L.R. 1196:
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