Title: Chambers v. State

State: indiana

Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court

Document:

232 Ind. 349 (1953)
111 N.E.2d 816
CHAMBERS
v.
STATE OF INDIANA.
No. 28,951.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
Filed May 1, 1953.
Rehearing denied June 9, 1953.
*350 Jess B. Fields, of Bloomington, for appellant.
J. Emmett McManamon, former Attorney General, Edwin K. Steers, Attorney General, and William T. McClain, former Deputy Attorney General, for appellee.
BOBBITT, J.
Appellant was charged by affidavit under Acts 1927, ch. 203, § 2, p. 580, being § 10-401, Burns' 1942 Replacement, with assault and battery with intent to commit a felony, was tried by jury, found guilty as charged, and sentenced to the Indiana State Prison for a period of one (1) to ten (10) years.
The sole error here assigned is the overruling of appellant's motion for a new trial.
*351 Fourteen specifications or grounds therefor are assigned.
Appellant has voluntarily waived specifications 2, 9, 10 and 11, and we shall consider the others in their regular order.
First: Appellant asserts, by specifications 1 and 3, that the verdict of the jury is not supported by sufficient evidence, and that it is contrary to law because a reasonable doubt exists as to his guilt, and urges us to review the evidence "to determine this fact."
We are asked by appellant to weigh the evidence which here is in conflict, to determine the question of "reasonable doubt."
Whether the testimony of appellant was sufficient to raise reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury was a question for their determination, and if there is evidence of probative value from which the jury could have found or from which it might have properly inferred, that appellant was guilty as charged, their verdict will not be disturbed on appeal.
Appellant relies upon Batterson v. State (1878), 63 Ind. 531, and Martin v. State (1867), 28 Ind. 310, which hold that where this court is satisfied from the evidence that a reasonable doubt of the guilt of the defendant exists a judgment of conviction will be reversed. The rule in these cases has not been followed in the later decisions of this court.
In Deal v. State (1895), 140 Ind. 354, 358, 39 N.E. 930, Judge McCabe, speaking for this court, ably stated the reasons for the settled rule that this court will not weigh evidence. We think it might be well, in view of the question here raised, to restate such reasons as they appear at p. 358 of 140 Ind., as follows:
If there is no evidence in the record here before us to support the verdict, or if there is no evidence from which proper inferences might have been drawn to support the verdict, then it is contrary to law. However, such is not the situation.
There is sufficient evidence in the record from which the jury might have found that Paul Mullis, the prosecuting witness, was visiting his half-brother in Bloomington, Indiana, on January 12, 1952; that his sister and her husband came to the house about 9:30 P.M.; that Mullis drank beer with his half-brother and the others present and watched television until twelve o'clock when he went outside the house to an outdoor toilet which was about forty feet from the entrance to the house.
That Mullis went out the front door and as he turned the corner of the house he saw a man standing about half-way between the house and the toilet. Mullis said: "Hello" and asked the man what he was doing, and he *353 answered that he was taking a walk. Mullis then said that it was a funny place to be taking a walk. When they were about six feet apart the man drew a knife from his pocket and stabbed Mullis in the stomach and knocked him over against the house. Mullis, knowing he had a knife, attempted to jump on his assailant when he grabbed Mullis' foot and cut the tendons in his leg; and the man then caught Mullis by his clothes and cut him across the front of his shirt. After this Mullis "beat off" his assailant and ran down the railroad tracks where he hailed an automobile which took him to the police station and then to the hospital. That while in the hospital Mullis observed his assailant making a telephone call from a telephone in the hall outside the operating room. A policeman, who had been called to the hospital to meet Mullis, saw appellant about the time or immediately after he made the telephone call and after Mullis had identified him as the man who attacked him, searched appellant and found a knife in his pocket.
Appellant testified in his own behalf, that he was driving his truck on 11th Street in Bloomington on the night of January 12, 1952, when Mrs. Juanita Mullis flagged him down and asked him if he would go to her house because she was having trouble with Paul Mullis; that some time after meeting Mrs. Mullis he parked his truck on Rogers Street and walked up the railroad tracks to Clarence and Juanita Mullis' house on Fairview Street and when he came to the house he saw Clarence Mullis asleep in the kitchen; that at the time someone slapped appellant on the shoulder and said, "You don't know me, do you?"; that this "someone" then turned appellant around and struck him across his (appellant's) left hand; that appellant left and when he was about one block from the Mullis house he discovered *354 that his hand was bleeding badly and stopped at a neighbor's house and this neighbor took him (appellant) to the same hospital where Paul Mullis, the prosecuting witness, had gone.
The clothes which Mullis wore on the night of January 12, 1952 were bloody and showed signs of having been slashed by a knife. He was in the hospital nine weeks and on crutches about four weeks thereafter.
We believe the evidence above recited is sufficient to sustain the verdict of the jury herein, and the verdict is not contrary to law.
Second: By specification 4 appellant asserts error in giving instruction No. 7-A, which is as follows:
because "it takes away from the Jury the absolute right under the Constitution to be the sole judges of the Law and the facts." It is difficult to understand appellant's contention when the instruction specifically says, "... in this case, the jury are the exclusive judges of the facts, and have the right to determine *355 the law." This was a proper instruction and no error was committed in giving it. MacDonald v. State (1946), 224 Ind. 74, 81, 64 N.E.2d 794; Hoffa v. State (1924),) 194 Ind. 300, 301, 142 N.E. 653.
Third: It is asserted in specification 5 that the court erred in admitting evidence as to other offenses committed by appellant. Appellant testified as a witness in his own behalf and, on cross-examination by the prosecuting attorney, was asked concerning other crimes which he had committed. This was proper cross-examination. In Bolden v. State (1927), 199 Ind. 160, 155 N.E. 824, at p. 163, this court said:
We reaffirm this rule.
Fourth: By specification 6 appellant asserts that the trial court erred in giving preliminary instruction No. 10 which is as follows:
This instruction, while probably containing harmless surplusage, does correctly state the rule of law pertaining to "reasonable doubt." Preliminary instruction No. 10 as here given was approved by this court in Garfield v. State (1881), 74 Ind. 60, 62.
Fifth: By specifications 7, 8, 12 and 13 appellant asserts that the court erred in refusing to give instructions 3, 7, 9 and 10 tendered by him. These instructions all pertain to "reasonable doubt." The court, on its own motion, gave instructions 1-A and 6-A as follows:
The foregoing instructions are in substance the same as instructions 3, 7, 9 and 10 tendered by appellant and refused, and they fully cover all the matters contained in those requested by appellant. Appellant's tendered instructions 3, 7, 9 and 10 were, under the circumstances, properly refused. Faulkenberg v. State (1926), 197 Ind. 491, 497, 151 N.E. 382; Ewbank's Criminal Law, 2d ed., § 625, p. 439.
Sixth: By specification 14 appellant asserts that the the court erred in giving, on its own motion, instruction number 8-A. The record fails to disclose any objection or exception by appellant in the trial court to the giving of this instruction, hence no question is presented in this court.
Finding no reversible error, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
NOTE.  Reported in 111 N.E.2d 816.
[1]  See Acts 1881 (Spec. Sess.) ch. 38, § 647, p. 240, § 2-3225, Burns' 1946 Replacement.