Votre v. State

• Decision Date: 08 March 1923
• Docket Number: No. 24088.,24088.
• Citation: 192 Ind. 684,138 N.E. 257
• Parties: VOTRE v. STATE.
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

192 Ind. 684

138 N.E. 257

VOTRE

v.STATE.

No. 24088.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

March 8, 1923.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Howard County; William C. Overton, Judge.

Charles Votre was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, and he appeals. Reversed, with instruction to grant a new trial.

Joseph C. Herron, of Kokomo, for appellant.

U. S. Lesh, Atty. Gen., and Mrs. Edward Franklin White, Deputy Atty. Gen., for the State.

TRAVIS, C. J.

Appellant was charged with the crime of involuntary manslaughter. He appeals from the judgment on the verdict.

Appellant, with three other men and two girls, spent one Sunday afternoon and evening in dancing and drinking a quart bottle of whisky, purchased earlier in the day by two of the men, companions of appellant, and by them brought to the place where the party was held. The four men and one of the girls -the deceased-drank all of the whisky from the bottle that was consumed, and all of them became more or less intoxicated. The bottle of whisky had been on a table, and during the time mentioned, several persons, who drank the whisky, drank from the bottle, or from a glass into which whisky had been poured. The girls mentioned were sisters. The one who did not drink testified that the appellant had picked the bottle up and held it out to the deceased, and invited her to have a drink, and that the deceased took the bottle and took a small drink. This was the only instance shown by the evidence in which the appellant was connected in any way with the offering of the liquor to the deceased. Thereafter one of the other men gave the deceased whisky which he had poured into a glass from the bottle. Late in the afternoon the deceased became sick and unconscious, and died about midnight. She was of the age of 16 years. One of the physicians who had attended her upon this occasion and just previous to her death, and who, after the death, held an autopsy, testified that the drinking of whisky would not ordinarily cause death; and testified further that the death in this instance was caused by the diseased condition of the deceased, which resulted in an attack of heart disease, occasioned by alcoholic poisoning, from which she died. Further evidence was that she had diseases of the heart, stomach, kidneys, and all the social diseases to which the human body is subject, with all the lesions and imflammations of other organs naturally resulting therefrom.

Appellant filed a motion for a new trial, for the causes that the verdict of the jury is contrary to law, and is not sustained by sufficient evidence, the overruling of which motion is the only error assigned.

[1] The court cannot say as a matter of law that death is the usual or...