Court Opinion

ID: 9726237
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 12:38:39.498112+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:24.342193
License: Public Domain

GIVAN, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the conclusion of the majority opinion that the trial judge erred in refusing to give an instruction on manslaughter. In order for it to be proper for a trial judge to give an instruction on manslaughter, he must find that there is evidence of both provocation and sudden heat. Matheney v. State (1992), Ind., 583 N.E.2d 1202, cert. denied, 504 U.S. 962, 112 S.Ct. 2320, 119 L.Ed.2d 238.
In the present case, appellant testified that when he went to the trailer to talk with his wife, she at first produced a gun and pointed it at him, that he was able to take it away from her, that they had an extended conversation, that during that conversation she tried to seduce him, that while he was holding the gun she grabbed his belt and pulled on it, and that the gun accidentally discharged. However, the evidence showed that while the victim had sustained a non-contact bullet wound to the chest, she also had four other bullet wounds to the chest which were contact wounds.
Although she was wearing a sweater at the time her body was discovered, the sweater did not have bullet holes. Thus, there was evidence that she was not dressed at the time *565of the shooting and that the defendant's testimony that he dressed her following the shooting was correct. There was testimony that there was no sign of a struggle in the trailer, that there was an open Bible laying on the table turned to a passage concerning divorce, that appellant had told others after the shooting that his wife had an abortion, thus killed their baby, and that she had voiced her intention to divorcee him for another man.
If one accepts appellant's version of the shooting, that it was accidental, then an instruction of voluntary manslaughter would be improper. Rowe v. State (1989), Ind., 539 N.E.2d 474. On the other hand, other evidence presented by the State indicated a calculated deliberate murder which would not justify the giving of a manslaughter instruction. Matheney, supra.
I find no justification for the giving of a manslaughter instruction. The trial judge should be affirmed.