Title: Hedrick v. State
Citation: 229 Ind. 381, 98 N.E.2d 906
Docket Number: 28,707
State: Indiana
Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court
Date: May 23, 1951

229 Ind. 381 (1951)
98 N.E.2d 906
HEDRICK
v.
STATE OF INDIANA.
No. 28,707.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
Filed May 23, 1951.
*382 Franklyn George, of New Castle, for appellant.
J. Emmett McManamon, Attorney General; John Ready O'Connor and George W. Hand, Deputy Attorneys General, for appellee.
*383 BOBBITT, C.J.
Appellant was indicted under § 10-3401, Burns' 1942 Replacement, for murder while attempting to commit robbery; was tried by a jury on his plea of not guilty; and was found guilty as charged and sentenced to the Indiana State Prison for and during his natural life.
Motion for a new trial was seasonably filed and overruled.
The only error assigned is that the court erred in overruling appellant's motion for a new trial.
Because of the nature of the question here involved, we believe it is appropriate to include a short statement of the circumstances surrounding the crime for which appellant was indicted and convicted. Appellant was involved with one Clarence Gorman and Lawrence Anderson in an attempted robbery which resulted in murder. The state attempted to show by certain acts and conversations between appellant and said Gorman and Anderson prior to the commission of the crime, including the act of driving his automobile and taking said Gorman and Anderson to and from the scene of the crime and his presence at its commission, that he (appellant) aided and abetted the perpetration of said crime, thereby making him a principal.
One of the theories of defense presented by appellant was that even though he might have participated in the planning of the robbery, as the state attempted to show, he abandoned his intentions and undertook to withdraw from participation therein in such a manner and under such circumstances as would relieve him from any responsibility for the crime of murder.
Among other things, appellant contends that the trial court erred in refusing to give certain instructions tendered by him covering the substance of his defense of abandonment and withdrawal from the crime, which are tendered instructions numbered 1 and 2.
*384 Tendered instruction No. 1, which is a modification of the court's instruction No. 16, is as follows:
Tendered instruction No. 2 is as follows:
Clarence Gorman, a witness for the State, testified, in part, as follows:
Appellant (defendant) testified on direct examination, in part, as follows:
Where the substance of an instruction which is refused is covered by one given, such refusal is not reversible error. Koerner v. The State (1884), 98 Ind. 7, 24; Kocher v. State (1920), 189 Ind. 578, 582, 127 N.E. 3; Beneks v. State (1935), 208 Ind. 317, 328, 196 N.E. 73; Mandich v. State (1946), 224 Ind. 209, 215, 66 N.E.2d 69.
*388 Appellee contends that instructions numbered 17, 18, 19 and 20, to the effect that defendant should not be found guilty unless there was proof beyond reasonable doubt that he was acting in concert with Gorman and Anderson in the commission of the crime charged, covered the "converse of abandonment" and were sufficient to cover the substance of appellant's tendered instructions numbered 1 and 2. We cannot agree with this contention.
Appellee further contends that the court's instructions numbered 21 and 22, which are as follows:
*389 were sufficient to "comprehend and include" the question of abandonment. While these instructions are sufficient to cover the subject of duress, we do not deem them sufficient to cover the substance of appellant's tendered instructions numbered 1 and 2. Duress and repentance and withdrawal, (abandonment) are different defenses and an instruction on one cannot supply the omission of an instruction on the other where there is evidence in the record as to both.
One who is a party to a plan or design to commit a crime may abandon the idea and withdraw from the plan or design in such a manner and under such circumstances as to avoid liability for its commission. Stephens v. The State (1886), 107 Ind. 185, 189, 8 N.E. 94; State v. Allen (1879), 47 Conn. 121; Hyde v. United States (1912), 225 U.S. 347, 56 L. Ed. 1114, 32 S. Ct. 793; 15 Am. Jur., Criminal Law, § 333, p. 22; 22 C.J.S., Criminal Law, § 94, p. 165.
We believe appellant's tendered instructions numbered 1 and 2, while they are not model instructions, when read together state the law involved with sufficient accuracy to properly serve the purpose for which they were tendered. We also deem the evidence here sufficient to justify the giving of the requested instructions. 23 C.J.S., Criminal Law, § 1313, p. 913.
The rule here applicable is stated in Ewbank's Ind. Criminal Law (2d ed.), § 625 at p. 439 and is as follows:
See also: Carpenter v. The State (1873), 43 Ind. 371, 373; Agee v. The State (1878), 64 Ind. 340, 343, 345; *390 Parker et al. v. The State (1894), 136 Ind. 284, 292, 35 N.E. 1105; 23 C.J.S., Criminal Law, § 1199, p. 750.
While this court will not order a reversal for errors which in no way prejudice the substantial rights of the appellant,[1] we cannot weigh the evidence for the purpose of attempting to determine that, had the requested instructions been given, the jury would have reached the same result or that appellant's interests were not prejudiced by the refusal of the court to give such instructions. Beneks v. State (1935), 208 Ind. 317, 329, 196 N.E. 73, supra.
There was, as we have heretofore indicated, evidence introduced which presented the question of appellant's repentance or abandonment of the crime with which he was charged. Under these circumstances it was his right to have the jury instructed upon the law pertaining to that subject, when he so requested, and it was reversible error for the court to refuse to give appellant's requested instructions numbered 1 and 2. Dunn v. State (1906), 166 Ind. 694, 702, 78 N.E. 198; Carpenter v. The State (1873), 43 Ind. 371, supra; Diblee v. State (1931), 202 Ind. 571, 575, 577, 177 N.E. 261; Malone v. State (1911), 176 Ind. 338, 345, 96 N.E. 1; Eby v. State (1905), 165 Ind. 112, 117, 74 N.E. 890; Sutherlin v. The State (1897), 148 Ind. 695, 705, 48 N.E. 246; Pierce v. Clemens (1943), 113 Ind. App. 65, 46 N.E.2d 836; 23 C.J.S., Criminal Law, § 1190(a), p. 731.
It is not necessary for us to decide the other questions raised by appellant's motion for a new trial as they are not likely to occur in a retrial of the case.
*391 The judgment of the trial court is reversed with instructions to sustain appellant's (defendant's) motion for a new trial and for further proceedings in accord with this opinion.
NOTE.  Reported in 98 N.E.2d 906.
[1]  Medly v. State (1915), 183 Ind. 660, 661, 110 N.E. 58; Hay v. State (1912), 178 Ind. 478, 485, 98 N.E. 712; Beneks v. State (1935), 208 Ind. 317, 329, 196 N.E. 73, supra; Ewbank's Criminal Law (2d ed.), § 605, p. 422; Section 9-2320, Burns' 1942 Replacement.