State v. Stover

Citation63 S.E. 315,64 W.Va. 668
PartiesSTATE . v. STOVER.
Decision Date22 December 1908
CourtSupreme Court of West Virginia

63 S.E. 315
64 W.Va. 668

STATE .
v.
STOVER.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Dec. 22, 1908.


1. Homicide (§ 308*)—Instructions—Degree of Crime—"Prima Facie."

An instruction that if the accused unlawfully and intentionally hit the deceased in the head with a pistol, and killed him, though the accused did not intend to kill, yet he is prima facie guilty of murder in the second degree, is not binding on the jury to find that degree of murder, and does not prevent them from finding voluntary manslaughter or self-defense, and is not error.

[Ed. Note.—For other cases, see Homicide, Dec. Dig. § 308.*

For other definitions, see Words and Phrases, vol. 6, p. 5549.]

2. Criminal Law (§ 918*)—Trial—Taking Indictment to Jury Room.

The fact that on a criminal trial the indictment, having written on it a former verdict of guilty, is taken by the jury to its room, no objection having been made to its doing so, is not ground for new trial.

[Ed. Note.—For other cases, see Criminal Law, Dec. Dig. § 918.*]

3. Criminal Law (§ 858*) — Trial — Papers Taken to Jury Room.

What may be taken by the jury to its room?

[Ed. Note.—For other cases, see Criminal Law, Cent. Dig. §§ 2054-2059; Dec. Dig. § 858.*]

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Appeal from Circuit Court, Raleigh County.

Lantie Stover was convicted of murder in the second degree, and brings error. Affirmed.

M. F. Matheny and G. W. Williams, for plaintiff in error.

The Attorney General, A. A. Lilly, J. W. Ball, A. P. Farley, and A. M. Belcher, for the State.

BRANNON, J. Lantie Stover was indicted for the murder of John Lewis in Raleigh county, and two trials by a jury resulted in a verdict of guilty of murder in the second degree. From the last sentence in the criminal court of Raleigh county Stover took a writ of error to the circuit court, and, the latter court having affirmed the sentence, Stover comes here by a writ of error.

It is useless to detail evidence. As I have several times written, it is not the office of an opinion in this court, except in rare cases, to detail evidence, but to pass on legal questions. In this case it is enough to say that Stover, a constable, had arrested the son of John Lewis, and while taking him past the house of Lewis a quarrel and altercation arose between Stover and Lewis and his wife, in which Stover struck John Lewis on the head two licks with a pistol, by one of the licks breaking the skull of Lewis, causing his brains to ooze, from which wound Lewis died in a day or two. There is a considerable volume of evidence on both sides, and the decision of the case involves the question of self-defense, or, if not that, then whether the case was one of murder or voluntary...

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