State v. Robinson

• Decision Date: 08 March 1950
• Parties: STATE v. ROBINSON.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 260

72 A.2d 260

145 Me. 77

STATE v. ROBINSON.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

March 8, 1950.

Lloyd H. Stitham, County Attorney for the County of Somerset, Pittsfield, for the State.

Dubord & Dubord, by F. Harold Dubord, Waterville, Lewis L. Levine, Waterville, for defendant.

Before MURCHIE, C. J., and THAXTER, FELLOWS, MERRILL, NULTY and WILLIAMSON, JJ.

MERRILL, Justice.

On exceptions. The respondent, Rodney L. Robinson, was tried at the May Term of the Superior Court in the County of Somerset, upon a complaint and warrant charging him with assault and battery upon one John B. Gallant. At the close of the testimony, motion for a directed verdict of not guilty was seasonably made, denied, and exceptions alleged and allowed. At the conclusion of the charge, the respondent in writing requested eleven instructions to the jury. To the denial of the eleventh request, the respondent seasonably alleged exceptions which were allowed. The jury having found the respondent guilty, the case is now before this Court upon the foregoing exceptions.

The record clearly discloses that the complaining witness, John B. Gallant, a deputy sheriff, and the respondent engaged in a serious physical struggle in which both parties were severely and grieviously injured. Each of them complained that the other was the unprovoked aggressor and struck the first blow. The respondent's plea was not guilty. He admitted striking the complainant, and relied upon self defense in justification thereof. He sought to justify his acts upon two grounds, repelling an unwarranted attack by the complaining witness upon him, and resistance of an unlawful arrest.

It would be profitless to relate the conflicting testimony of the complaining witness and the respondent and the witnesses called on behalf of the State and the respondent. Issues of fact were raised and their solution in a large measure depended upon the credence given by the jury to the conflicting testimony of the complaining witness and the respondent. The determination of these questions of fact was peculiarly within the province of the jury which observed and heard the witnesses. As said by this Court in State v. Hume, 131 Me. 458, 460, 164 A. 198, 199:

'We are of opinion that, if the testimony of the state's witnesses was believed, it was sufficient to establish the guilt of the respondent beyond a reasonable doubt. A direct denial of the state's charges and a contradiction of its witnesses raised an issue of fact which was for the jury. There was no error in the denial of the respondent's motion for a directed verdict. State v. Donahue, 125 Me. 516, 517, 133 A. 433; State v. Harvey, 124 Me. 226, 127 A. 275.'

The exception to the refusal to direct a verdict of not guilty must be overruled.

The requested instruction which was refused was as follows:----

'The jury is instructed as a matter of law that the evidence adduced by the State is insufficient for you to find that the respondent at the time of the alleged assault was intoxicated to that degree sufficient to authorize the officer to arrest the respondent without a warrant for intoxication. This being true, the attempted arrest without a warrant was unlawful and the respondent had a right to resist with reasonable force. You are further instructed that unless you are convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the respondent used more force to resist the unlawful arrest than was reasonable, that you should find the respondent not guilty.'

The rule of law with respect to the denial of requested instructions is correctly stated in State v. Cox, 138 Me. 151, 169, 23 A.2d 634, 644, where we said:----

'A requested instruction which is not, in its totality, sound law, is properly withheld. It is no part of the duty of the court to eliminate errors in a requested instruction. State v. Cleaves, 59 Me. 298, 303, 8 Am.Rep. 422.'

Neither is it the duty of the Court to supply omissions in a requested instruction in order that the same may be applicable to the case at bar.

Whether or not the respondent was intoxicated was peculiarly a question of fact for the jury. The jury were properly instructed by the court as to what constituted intoxication, and this at the request of the respondent. The determination thereof depended upon the condition of the accused as exhibited by conduct. There was a sharp conflict of testimony between the respondent and his witnesses and the State's witnesses, including the complaining witness, as to the conduct of the accused.

It was an undisputed fact that the respondent had been drinking at the time the alleged assault occurred. This fact, coupled with his unprovoked assault upon the complaining witness, his use of vile epithets, and his appearance both to the witness and to the other officers at the scene of the altercation and later at the jail as related by the State's witnesses, even though...