Case Name: Waits v. The State
Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
Jurisdiction: Georgia
Decision Date: 1952-09-18
Citations: 86 Ga. App. 785
Docket Number: 34246
Parties: Waits v. The State.
Judges: Gardner, P.J., and Carlisle, J., concur.
Reporter: Georgia Appeals Reports
Volume: 86
Pages: 785–786

Head Matter:
34246.
Waits v. The State.
Decided September 18, 1952.
James H. Dodgen, for plaintiff in error.
Paul Webb, Solicitor-General, Wm. Hall, Charlie O. Murphy, contra.
R. B. Waits was tried in the Superior Court of Fulton County for the offense of assault with intent to commit murder, and convicted of shooting at another. The evidence conclusively shows that the defendant and another gave Martin, the victim, a ride to the defendant’s home; that the defendant took Martin inside and gave him a drink of either coffee or wine, and that at the time the shot was fired Martin was running through the back door into the yard, and the defendant, in the kitchen, fired a shotgun which wounded him in the leg. Evidence was conflicting as to whether the two men had quarreled after arriving at the .house, as to whether Martin had first drawn a knife on the defendant, and as to whether he was intoxicated. The jury was, however, authorized to find from the evidence as a whole that the defendant had not shot under circumstances of justification, and all the evidence, including the defendant’s statement, reveals that at the time of the shooting Martin was fleeing from the house.

Opinion:
Townsend, J.
The evidence here being in conflict as to whether the defendant and the victim had quarreled, but being undisputed that the defendant shot at and wounded the victim while he was running from the house, the verdict of guilty of shooting at another was authorized by the evidence. West v. State, 66 Ga. App. 550 (18 S. E. 2d, 500); Wagoner v. State, 52 Ga. App. 379 (183 S. E. 209).
Judgment affirmed.
Gardner, P.J., and Carlisle, J., concur.
A motion for a new trial on the general grounds only was overruled, and this judgment is assigned as error.