State v. Maddox

• Decision Date: 29 December 1898
• Citation: 92 Me. 348,42 A. 788
• Parties: STATE v. MADDOX et al.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

42 A. 788

92 Me. 348

STATE

v. MADDOX et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Dec. 29, 1898.

(Official.)

Exceptions from superior court, Kennebec county.

Walter Maddox and another were convicted of assault, and defendant Maddox excepts. Exceptions sustained.

This was an indictment charging the defendants with the crime of assault and battery upon Albert Hodges. There was an affray at the time and place alleged in the indictment, in the public highway. The two defendants and said Hodges were present.

Sidney K. Fuller, one of the defendants, testified that he took no part in the affray whatever. Maddox, the other defendant, testified that all the acts of violence done by him on the occasion were to repel the acts of assault and battery made upon him by said Hodges, who, he claims, assaulted him with a stake. He admitted that he, with a shovel, repelled the blows aimed at him by said Hodges with the stake, and that in so doing he hit said Hodges on the arm and shoulder, but he denied that he hit Hodges on the head.

Hodges, in his testimony, claimed that Maddox commenced the assault upon him with a shovel, hitting him on the arm, shoulder, and head, and that, while Maddox was doing that, Fuller was urging Maddox on, and holding Hodges' horse by the bit. This both Maddox and Fuller denied.

The affray took place in the highway, 1,060 feet from said Hodges' dwelling house, where his wife was when the affray took place, Mrs. Hodges testified that she heard the outcry up the street, and ran out of her house into the road; that she looked up the street, and saw the parties in the highway, and that she heard certain violent words passing between her husband and Maddox, but she saw no blows struck, and that she saw her husband turn his team around towards her. Then she, in answer to interrogatories by the county attorney, testified as follows:

"When I saw he had turned, I turned, and ran back to the house, and he drove back about as fast as the horse could come,—that is, a trotting gait,—and drove down round to the stable. As he came down the road, he called to me, and seemed in a good deal of distress, and took on terribly. The first words he said, 'Sadie, get your bonnet.'"

Mr. Brown: "I object."

Question by the County Attorney: "How soon after you saw him in the road down there was it before you heard him say what you were about to tell us?"

Answer: "It might have been half a minute. I don't think it could have been a minute."

Mr. Heselton: "I offer it as a part of the res gestae,—his account, and what he said at that time."

Mr. Brown: "I object."

The Court: "He may answer."

Mr. Brown: "I except."

(Exceptions entered.)

Answer: "I cannot give his exact words, for he said a good deal, and took on. He wanted me to get my bonnet, and go with him; that Fuller and Maddox had stopped him in the road, and assaulted him, and Maddox had pounded him with a shovel, and broken his arm, and pounded him on the head, and Fuller held his horse, and backed him up, and broke the breeching. He told me that as we were going down here [indicating a point on the plan], and he kept on, after he got into the barn, talking on like a man in distress, and telling me about it. I helped him take the harness off. He said his arm was broken, and he took on a good deal, and he wanted me to look at his cap to see if his cap or collar was not cut. He said he had struck him on the head. I looked at his cap. His collar was turned up. He said he had got a blow on his head, but his fur collar was turned up to his cap nearly."

Question by the County Attorney: "Did he complain of any blows except in the arm and head?"

Answer: "No; he said they had pounded him terribly."

Mr. Brown: "Your honor allows all this to come in under that question, I suppose?"

Court: "Yes, what he said within two or three minutes' time."

Albert Hodges, called by the government, in cross-examination by the defendants' counsel testified as follows:

"I have brought an action for civil damages."

Question: "How much have you sued for?"

Mr. Heselton (the county attorney): "I object."

The Court: "Excluded."

The following testimony was then taken:

Mr. Brown: "It seems to me that the extent of it was proper, and the court thinks otherwise."

The Court: "As bearing upon the amount of injury."

Mr. Brown: "No, as bearing upon the bias and influence under which the witness testifies. He is seeking damages for himself."

The Court: "It is to be presumed that he may testify under some feeling; perhaps a bias."

Mr. Brown: "Yes; but there are various kinds of bias."

The Court: "Well, he has brought suit anyway. I think that is all necessary to show."

Mr. Brown: "Yes; one is injury and the other is dollars and cents. I think I will have exceptions on that, your honor."

Court: "Very well."

Dr. W. P. Giddings, an experienced physician and surgeon, called by the government, gave the following testimony:

Question by the County Attorney: "Assuming that a man received a blow on the top of the head twenty-two days before you saw him, in the condition you found him in on that day, may the condition at that time have been produced by the blow?"

Mr Brown: "I object."

The Court: "I cannot really see how that is material to the issue involved here."

Mr. Heselton: "I want to show the extent of the injury."

The Court: "It can only come in on the question of sentence."

Mr. Heselton. "I can conceive of its being admissible in this way: blows inflicted beyond the legitimate self-defense."

The Court: "I see. If you can connect the condition of the man at that time with the blows he received."

Mr. Brown: "The question goes in subject to my objection and exception."

The Court: "Yes."

Witness answers: "It might have been."

The jury returned a verdict of guilty as to the defendant Maddox, but disagreed and rendered no verdict as to the defendant Fuller.

To the foregoing rulings of the presiding justice and the admission of said testimony of Mrs. Hodges, Mr. Hodges, and Dr. Giddings the defendants' counsel seasonably objected, and took exceptions.

Argued before PETERS, C. J., and EMERY, HASKELL, WHITEHOUSE, STROUT, and SAVAGE, JJ.

Geo. W. Heselton, Co. Atty., for the State.

S. S. & F. E. Brown, for defendant Maddox.

STROUT, J. Defendants were indicted for assault and battery upon Albert Hodges. Ten hundred and fifty feet from the house of Hodges, the parties had an affray in the highway, in which it was alleged that Maddox struck Hodges with a shovel, and broke his arm, and inflicted other injuries. Hodges'...