Court Opinion

ID: 9772445
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:17:59.19404+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:44.507855
License: Public Domain

WOODLEY, Presiding Judge
(dissenting).
The rule referred to in the majority opinion is that if the weapon was not a deadly weapon “ * * * the jury may arrive at the intention of the party from the surrounding facts. If it was possible that death might have been inflicted by the weapon, and the defendant intended to take life, though the weapon was not a deadly weapon, still he might be guilty of an assault with intent to murder.” (Quote from Franklin v. State, 38 S.W. 1016, cited in Hernandez v. State, supra.)
No expert testimony was needed to establish the fact that the knife was an instrument with which it was possible for the appellant to kill Cunningham.
As I see it, the facts viewed in the light most favorable to the state sustain the jury’s finding that the appellant made the assault upon Cunningham, the peace maker, with the intent to kill.
When Cunningham arrived, the appellant, who had the odor of liquor on his breath, was cursing Akin, a Dallas lawyer, and was fighting him. He accused Akin of trying to rob him.
After Cunningham had stopped a cab and asked the driver to call the police and had told the appellant to get in his car and wait, and after he had overtaken the car as it was leaving the scene, and had walked up to the driver’s side and was talking to the driver, the appellant got out on the other side of the car, came around and attacked Cunningham.
The appellant admitted on cross-examination that he got out of the car and went around there to get him (Cunningham).
*850“Q. But still, you got out'of the car and went around there to get him, didn’t you ?
“A. Yes, sir, I sure did.
When he came around he started shoving ■Cunningham — shoved him up against the •car- — cursed him and with his hand in his jpocket said:
“Come on, touch me, I am going to kill you; just touch me, I am going to kill you, hit me, I am going to kill you.”
'“Q. As he did that, what, if anything, did he do next?
“A. Well, the next thing I know, he had my shirt over my head and really hitting at me.
'“Q. All right; what, if anything, did you do after he pulled your shirt over your head and hit you in the chest there?
■“A. Well, I was wrestling with him, got ahold of both hands, and finally got him down on the ground, and whenever I got to where I could see what I was doing, then I doubled up my fist and hit him in the mouth, and when I did that, he quit. It just took all of the fight out of him and he looked up at me, kind of grinned and says, ‘Boy, you are dead.’
'“Q. What, if anything, did you say ?
•“A. I said, What?’ And he said, ‘Man, don’t you feel it yet?’ Kind of grinning, laughing—
■“Q. And what did you do after he said that ?
-“A. I looked down then and then I saw the knife in his hand and looked over and saw the blood dripping out of my side, then felt .it running, down my side.
“Q.- All right.
“A. And I stomped bn his hand, then, the hand that had the knife in it, and made him turn loose of the knife.”
The knife which was used was introduced in evidence and is before its. It appears to be an ordinary pocket knife, both of its blades being sharp. •
The fact that the- appellant continued his assault with the knife until he was overpowered is a circumstance which the-jury could take into consideration in determining whether he intended to kill.