Brundage v. State, 30383.

• Decision Date: 24 February 1944
• Docket Number: No. 30383.,30383.
• Citation: 29 S.E.2d 316
• Parties: BRUNDAGE . v. STATE.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

29 S.E.2d 316

BRUNDAGE .

v.STATE.

No. 30383.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 1.

Feb. 24, 1944.

Syllabus by the Court.

1. Where the State claimed and the evidence showed that the deceased was shot by the defendant, and there was no rational ground for doubt that death was caused by wounds so inflicted, a verdict will be supported, though no expert testified as to the cause of death.

2. A rational doubt is one based on reasonable inferences such as are ordinarily drawn by ordinary men in the light of their experiences in ordinary life. Hicks v. State, 66 Ga.App. 577, 582, 18 S.E.2d 637.

3. The testimony as a whole authorized the verdict of guilty of manslaughter.

Error from Superior Court, Putnam County; George S. Carpenter, Judge.

John Brundage was convicted of manslaughter, and he brings error.

Affirmed.

M. F. Adams and S. T. Wingfield, both of Eatonton, for plaintiff in error.

C. S. Baldwin, Jr., Sol. Gen., of Madison, for defendant in error.

MacINTYRE, Judge.

The defendant Brundage was indicted for murder and found guilty of manslaughter. His motion for a new trial was overruled and he excepted.

The defendant contends that the evidence does not show that the defendant shot and killed one Rowe with a pistol, as charged in the indictment. The defendant himself, in his statement to the jury, said: "I shot him and he fell. I turned around and went back on the porch." "I shot him on the 16th and he died on the 21st, that Friday." The evidence showed that the defendant shot Rowe with a pistol; that he fell immediately to the ground; that a witness who was present at the shooting testified: "I don't know where he was shot. I looked but I couldn't see, blood was all around his mouth. * * * When John Rowe got shot he went to the ground almost time the pistol fired. He did not walk or move anywhere after he was shot before he got on the ground. He just fell right there, the minute he pulled the trigger. He bled some there on the ground. We picked him up from there and carried him to the doctor, he got up partly but he couldn't straighten up so well. We did not have to tote him. He walked to the car. The only pool of blood that was made was where he fell, except what was on my car seat." This testimony further showed that the blood in the car came from the deceased as he was being carried to the doctor; that from the doctor's they carried him to his home; that "I don't know how long John Rowe lived after he was shot. He lived a day or two, or two or three days. He died from that shot a day or two later;" that "He did not see John Rowe die. I saw his body after he was dead. I went there that morning when he died." There was no evidence which even hinted that anything other than the wound inflicted by the defendant caused Rowe's death.

" 'It is not necessary that the body of the deceased should furnish the evidence of...