Title: State v. Redfern

State: north-carolina

Issuer: North Carolina Supreme Court

Document:

230 S.E.2d 152 (1976) 291 N.C. 319 STATE of North Carolina v. George Lee REDFERN. No. 116. Supreme Court of North Carolina. December 7, 1976. *153 Atty. Gen. Rufus L. Edmisten by Special Deputy Atty. Gen. John R. B. Matthis and Associate Atty. Rebecca R. Bevacqua, Raleigh, for the State. R. Wayne Pickett, Concord, for defendant-appellant. BRANCH, Justice. Defendant's sole assignment of error attacks the failure of the trial court to charge the jury on the lesser-included offense of involuntary manslaughter. Involuntary manslaughter is the unintentional killing of a human being without malice, proximately caused by (1) an unlawful act not amounting to a felony nor naturally dangerous to human life, or (2) a culpably negligent act or omission. State v. Ward, 286 N.C. 304, 210 S.E.2d 407. It is unquestioned that the trial judge must instruct the jury as to a lesser-included offense of the crime charged, when there is evidence from which the jury could find that the defendant committed the lesser offense. State v. Wrenn, 279 N.C. 676, 185 S.E.2d 129; State v. Jones, 264 N.C. 134, 141 S.E.2d 27. However, when all the evidence tends to show that the accused committed the crime with which he is charged and there is no evidence of guilt of a lesser-included offense, the court correctly refuses to charge on the unsupported lesser offense. State v. Harris, 290 N.C. 681, 228 S.E.2d 437; State v. Duboise, 279 N.C. 73, 181 S.E.2d 393. "The presence of such evidence is the determinative factor." State v. Hicks, 241 N.C. 156, 84 S.E.2d 545. In this case defendant testified as follows: Defendant contends that this evidence would have sustained a verdict of guilty of involuntary manslaughter. In State v. Foust, 258 N.C. 453, 128 S.E.2d 889, Justice Parker (later Chief Justice), speaking for this Court, stated: The controlling facts in instant case are remarkably similar to those in State v. *154 Ward, supra. In Ward Justice Moore, speaking for the Court, stated: See also State v. Gordon, 241 N.C. 356, 85 S.E.2d 322. Here all the evidence, including defendant's own testimony, shows that deceased was fatally wounded when defendant intentionally discharged his pistol under circumstances naturally dangerous to human life. There was no evidence of an accidental discharge of the weapon. Thus, the trial judge did not commit error in failing to charge on the lesser-included offense of involuntary manslaughter since there was no evidence to support such a verdict. No error.