Weldon v. State

The defendant James Weldon was indicted and tried in the Superior Court of DeKalb County for assault with intent to murder and was convicted of shooting at another. The prosecuting witness testified for the State in substance that on the night of November 25, 1950, he and another police officer received a call to go to a designated address; that they first talked to the defendant's wife and landlady on the porch of the house, and then went to a small house about a hundred feet in the rear in which the defendant was living; that he knocked on the door and the defendant asked who was there; that they replied it was the police; that the defendant then fired five shots through the door with a shotgun; that the first load hit the witness about the waist and abdomen and his companion pushed him off the porch so that he would not receive the other loads of shot; that about 40 shot struck his body, as a result of which he required hospitalization; that the police officers went to the squad car, radioed for help and returned to the house; the witness, having procured his shotgun from the car, fired into the house several times. The defendant then came out of the door with his hands up and the witness began to search him, whereupon the defendant attempted to grab the witness's gun and the witness hit him several times, knocking him down. He was then placed in the police car and handcuffed. One witness for the defense testified that he and the defendant had been drinking bootleg liquor all that afternoon and when he left the defendant was as drunk as he had ever seen a man get. A former employer testified in substance that the man was a good worker and well-mannered when he had not been drinking. The defendant's brother testified on direct examination as follows: ""James has never been in any trouble like this before that I know of. The only trouble he has ever been in was just drinking. A few years ago he got a lick and fractured his skull and he stayed in the hospital, and I think they had to put a plate in, anyhow when he is drinking a lot he just goes all to pieces. When he ain't drinking he is just as nice and fine as he can be. I have never known him to be in trouble when he was not drinking. A certain amount of liquor affects him more than it would anyone else and this has resulted since this lick he secured."" The defendant contended in his statement to the jury that he had been drinking that afternoon, after which he had gotten into an argument with his wife about another man; that she had gone out threatening to bring back the man and have him ""beat up"" the defendant; that when he heard the knocking on the door he asked who was there but did not hear the reply and, assuming it was the man his wife had gone for, he fired through the door, and that he then surrendered. Following conviction the defendant made a motion for a new trial on the general grounds which was later amended by the addition of seven special grounds. The overruling of this motion is assigned as error.