Title: Mimms v. State
Citation: 231 N.E.2d 151, 249 Ind. 168
Docket Number: 30,797
State: Indiana
Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court
Date: November 27, 1967

249 Ind. 168 (1967)
231 N.E.2d 151
MIMMS
v.
STATE OF INDIANA.
No. 30,797.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
Filed November 27, 1967.
*169 Lewis Davis, of Indianapolis, for appellant.
John J. Dillon, Attorney General, and Wilma T. Leach, Deputy Attorney General, for appellee.
LEWIS, J.
This is an appeal from a conviction after trial by jury of the crime of manslaughter. The defendant was put on trial by an indictment charging Second-Degree Murder. The indictment, omitting the formal parts thereof, reads as follows:
The appellant in his motion for a new trial makes the following specifications:
The testimony of an eye-witness relates that the appellant was intoxicated at the time of the shooting. He approached the victim, who was having a verbal disagreement with another individual, asking if he needed any help. The victim replied in the negative. The appellant then drew a pistol at which the victim expressed his disapproval by uttering a verbal protest and moving towards the appellant to push the pistol aside. The pistol was discharged, mortally wounding the victim. It is not established whether or not the victim ever touched the pistol.
Burns' Indiana Statutes, Anno., § 10-3405, (1956 Repl.), reads as follows:
In the conviction the Trial Court did not distinguish as to whether this was voluntary or involuntary manslaughter. Therefore, it is enough if we find sufficient evidence of the commission of an unlawful act resulting in the death of the victim. The appellant's intent need not necessarily be at issue.
*171 Burns' Indiana Statutes, Anno., § 10-4707, (1956 Repl.), reads, in part, as follows:
making it an unlawful act to draw or threaten to use a pistol on any other person.
In Surber v. State (1884), 99 Ind. 71, judgment was affirmed by this Court where the appellant had drawn a pistol on another individual resulting in the individual being shot. The Court said:
In Minton v. State (1964), 244 Ind. 636, 195 N.E.2d 355, a judgment was affirmed where the appellant had violated Burns' Indiana Statutes, Anno., § 10-4708, Aiming Weapons, (1956 Repl.), and death resulted, wherein it was stated:
There seems to be no doubt that involuntary manslaughter is an included offense in murder. In Barker v. State (1957), 238 Ind. 271, 150 N.E.2d 680, we held:
*172 It is argued that a conviction for involuntary manslaughter under an indictment for murder may constitute a variance between pleading and proof. However, it is well established by the case law in Indiana that involuntary manslaughter is an included offense on a charge of murder; and, we repeat in this case the finding in Barker v. State, supra, that after the long line of judicial precedent in this state we do not here upset these legal precedents.
Appellant urges that there was not sufficient evidence of intent; however, intent is not required for a conviction of involuntary manslaughter. Minton v. State, supra, in discarding the theory of drunkenness as a defense, states:
We conclude that the evidence was of sufficient probative value to support a conviction of involuntary manslaughter.
There was sufficient evidence of each and every material allegation necessary to constitute the crime of manslaughter and to sustain the verdict of guilty. Flowers v. State (1956), 236 Ind. 151, 139 N.E.2d 185; Carlin v. State (1933), 204 Ind. 644, 184 N.E. 543.
There being no error in the Trial Court overruling appellant's motion for new trial, we affirm.
Jackson, C.J., and Arterburn, Hunter and Mote, JJ., concur.
NOTE.  Reported in 231 N.E.2d 151.