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34 N.C. App. 485

238 S.E.2d 666

State v. Walker

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

Decided November 16, 1977

Court of Appeals of North Carolina · decided 1977-11-16

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“The jury, when it considered the crime of involuntary manslaughter, had rejected self-defense. Since defendant was not acting in self-defense, he was acting unlawfully in pointing the gun close to Shores and firing it for the purpose of scaring him, as his testimony tends to show.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including State v. Spinks

“If you do not find the defendant guilty of second degree murder or voluntary manslaughter but the state has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he did not act in self-defense, then you must determine whether the defendant is guilty of involuntary manslaughter.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including State v. Spinks

Relies on State v. . Allen · State v. Douglas · State v. Wagoner

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1977-11-16

How this case has been cited

Cited by 15 later decisions — most recently February 2018

15 state decisions

6019771980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

*487 CLARK, Judge.

¶1 The defendant brings forward in his brief only one assignment of error: that the trial judge, in instructing the jury on involuntary manslaughter, erred in státing that “the defendant’s act was unlawful in using a deadly weapon in assaulting or shooting Harrison Shores.”

¶2 A defendant may, in an appropriate factual situation, under his plea of not guilty, rely on more than one defense, e.g., (1) self-defense, and (2) accident. See State v. Wagoner, 249 N.C. 637, 107 S.E. 2d 83 (1959), where the defendant’s evidence tended to show that the pistol was not intentionally fired but discharged accidentally.

¶3 In the case sub judice defendant’s evidence did not tend to show that the pistol was fired accidentally; it tended to show that defendant did not intend for the bullet to strike Shores but that he intended to fire to the right of his head for the purpose of scaring him. Under these circumstances this evidence does not present the defense of death by accident. See State v. Price, 271 N.C. 521, 157 S.E. 2d 127 (1967).

¶4 The trial court properly instructed the jury on the right of the defendant to defend himself. After charging on second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter, the court instructed as follows: “If you do not find the defendant guilty of second degree murder or voluntary manslaughter but the state has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he did not act in self-defense, then you must determine whether the defendant is guilty of involuntary manslaughter.”

¶5 The jury, when it considered the crime of involuntary manslaughter, had rejected self-defense. Since defendant was not acting in self-defense, he was acting unlawfully in pointing the gun close to Shores and firing it for the purpose of scaring him, as his testimony tends to show. It is well established that “no man by the show of violence has the right to put another in fear and thereby force him to leave a place where he has the right to be.” State v. Martin, 85 N.C. 509, 510 (1881); State v. Douglas, 268 N.C. 267, 150 S.E. 2d 412 (1966); State v. Price, supra. The pointing of a gun without legal justification is a violation of G.S. 14-34.

¶6*488 We find no error in the instruction that the defendant’s act was unlawful. Nor do we find prejudicial error in the trial court’s instructions on the contentions of the State.

¶7 All of the evidence in the case before us tends to show an intentional shooting and, thus, at the least, voluntary manslaughter. Though it was erroneous to charge on involuntary manslaughter, the verdict and judgment is permitted to stand since it is favorable to defendant. State v. Allen, 186 N.C. 302, 119 S.E. 504 (1923).

¶8 No error.

Judges Hedrick and Vaughn concur.
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