Case Name: WHIGHAM v. THE STATE (two cases)
Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
Jurisdiction: Georgia
Decision Date: 1974-03-13
Citations: 131 Ga. App. 261
Docket Number: 48805, 48806
Parties: WHIGHAM v. THE STATE (two cases).
Judges: Bell, C. J., Hall, P. J., Eberhardt, P. J., Quillian and Clark, JJ., concur. Pannell, Deen and Evans, JJ., dissent.
Reporter: Georgia Appeals Reports
Volume: 131
Pages: 261–265

Head Matter:
48805, 48806.
WHIGHAM v. THE STATE (two cases).

Opinion:
Stolz, Judge.
The defendants appeal from their convictions of aggravated assault and the sentence placing them with the Department of Corrections for one year. Held:
1. Uncontroverted evidence showed that Homer Davis and the Whigham sisters, Betty (17) and Dorothy Jessie (23), were neighbors; that the younger Whigham sister, Betty, and a group of her girl friends had been out riding and came into the house to watch television; that Davis followed the group of girls into the house through the front door. The older sister, Dorothy Jessie, who rented the house, had no trouble evicting Davis from the house upon her arrival from a neighbor's house. Dorothy Jessie went to get the two defendants, her brothers, to spend the night in the house because, as she testified, "a lot of boys is around the house and one of them went in the house and someone was trying to get in the house." When hearing this, the two defendants asked, "For what?" Dorothy Jessie replied, "I don't know, you know how these fast girls is." Later on cross examination, Dorothy Jessie referred to the girls, including her sister, Betty, as "fast girls."
There is considerable conflict in the evidence surrounding the events immediately preceding the shooting. The state's evidence showed that J. H. Whigham shot Davis, then a tussle between Davis and Whigham began. The defendants claimed that the shot was fired after the tussle between Davis and defendant Thomas Whigham. Davis was not on the Whigham property when the tussle occurred and did not seek out the Whigham brothers. There is no evidence of any size disparity between Davis and either defendant, to say nothing of both brothers. There is no evidence that Davis had a weapon of any kind or that he had gained any advantage in the struggle with Thomas Whigham that would have justified the intervention of defendant John Henry (J. H.) Whigham with a firearm. Indeed, neither defendant's evidence shows any action based on justification. The trial judge's charge, on justification, was a beneficial gratuity to which the defendants were not entitled under the evidence.
2. Error is also enumerated on the court's failure, without request, to charge on the law of misfortune or accident (Code Ann. § 26-602) and the law of intention (Code Ann. § 26-605). We have no citation of authority requiring the giving of Code Ann. § 26-605 since its enactment as a part of the Criminal Code of Georgia (Ga. L. 1968, pp. 1249,1269). Under former law (Code Ann. § 26-201,26-202) which dealt with the same subject-matter, this court has repeatedly held that the trial court was not required to give these sections in charge in the absence of a timely written request where the court charges on the essential elements of the crime with which the defendant is charged, including the necessity of intent, with which the crime is committed. Turpin v. State, 121 Ga. App. 294 (2) (173 SE2d 455) and cits. The same rule is applied to Code Ann. § 26-404. See Jacobs v. State, 120 Ga. App. 247, 248 (170 SE2d 36) and cit. Here, the trial judge charged that "a crime is a violation of a statute of this state in which there shall be a union of joint operation or act and intention " (emphasis supplied), and went on to define the offenses of aggravated assault, simple battery and simple assault.
Submitted January 15, 1974
Decided March 13, 1974.
Albert G. Ingram, for appellants.
Richard E. Allen, District Attorney, J. Bacheller Flythe, for appellee.
The transcript of the trial shows that whatever wrong or trespass Davis may have committed by entering or remaining in the Whigham residence, had ended. He had gone to his home, then returned to the basketball court, and was there, minding his own business, when the two defendants, with their sister, Betty, sought him out and confronted him. The jury had the benefit of the defendants' and their witnesses' version of the occurrence that followed, but chose to believe otherwise.
Judgment affirmed.
Bell, C. J., Hall, P. J., Eberhardt, P. J., Quillian and Clark, JJ., concur. Pannell, Deen and Evans, JJ., dissent.