Opinion ID: 2176468
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Assault and Battery

Text: Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence showed that appellee William D. O'Neill, an elderly man, boarded a Metrobus in Georgetown late in the evening of June 30, 1988, and sat down in one of the front seats by the door, facing forward. Two young men pounded on the door as the bus started forward, and the bus stopped to allow Alfred Jones and Willard Mallory [1] to board. The men reeked of alcohol. Their appearance and conduct, including stumbling and boisterousness, also suggested they were drunk or high on drugs. [2] They began arguing about the fare with the bus driver, and Jones walked toward the back of the bus without paying. Mallory eventually paid his own fare and sat down in the rear of the bus. At the driver's demand, Jones returned to the front of the bus and paid the fare after arguing with the driver. He began walking erratically toward the rear, grabbing the upright poles to maintain his balance. After several steps, he tripped over the leg of a woman seated near the front. He accused her of tripping him, yelled obscenities at her, and demanded an apology. [3] Standing over her, he again demanded an apology in a voice loud enough for everyone in the front of the bus to hear. Although an eyewitness, Ruby-line Walton, testified that the driver stood up and told Jones to go to the back of the bus and sit down, another eyewitness denied that the driver said anything to Jones at this time. For as much as several minutes, Jones walked up and down shouting obscenities at passengers, then went to the back of the bus. A short time later, however, he walked toward the front of the bus and again stood in front of the woman, this time pushing his crotch toward her face and yelling lewd and threatening remarks. [4] Mallory, in the meantime, had been making menacing faces at passengers in the back. Frightened by this behavior, a second woman went to the front of the bus and asked the driver to eject the men from the bus. When the driver refused, [5] the woman got off at the next stop. Jones continued to pace and repeat his obscene remarks. When he returned to the back of the bus, O'Neill asked the driver to do something about him. The driver refused, saying his job was to drive the bus and that the emergency phone was not working. Hearing this exchange, Jones shouted to O'Neil, What's it to you, old man, and returned to the front of the bus. First he bent over the woman he had threatened earlier and repeated the threat to kill her. Then he sat down behind O'Neill and, in a loud voice, threatened to kill him as well, before bending over the woman and threatening her once more. Jones then sat down behind O'Neill, grabbed him and poked at his nose, and said repeatedly, [D]o you want to die? and kill, kill. The driver heard these threats and saw Jones point his finger in O'Neill's face for as long as thirty seconds. [6] Jones pointed at yet another woman and threatened to kill her too. When O'Neill tried to get up, Jones grabbed him and O'Neill struggled to get away. The driver slammed on the brakes, causing Jones and O'Neill to fall backwards. Mallory then jumped up and began striking O'Neill in the face. The driver activated the silent alarm and flashing lights to summon police assistance. An ambulance arrived almost immediately, followed a minute later by the police. O'Neill's face was caved in, he suffered a broken nose and jaw, and he was hospitalized for eight days. He also suffered brain and spinal cord injuries and was unable to work for ten weeks. Altogether, ten minutes or more elapsed between the entry of the bus by Jones and Mallory and the beating of O'Neill.