People v. Keefer

Citations

• 18 Cal. 636
• 1861 Cal. LEXIS 258

Syllabus

<p>K. was indicted for an assault with intent to murder E. The Co.urt charged the jury that if “a loaded gun was presented within shooting range at W. or E., or at the dog, under circumstances not justified by law, and under circumstances showing an abandoned and malignant heart, and the gun was fired off and inflicted a dangerous wound upon E., then the crime of an assault with a deadly weapon with intent to inflict a bodily injury upon E. has been proved; and it would only remain for them to inquire whether defendant was guilty of the crime.” There was evidence tending to show that K. fired a gun in the direction of W. and E., and of a dog near them, there being some dispute as to whether the intent was to Mil or wound the dog or these men, or one of them: Held, that the charge was wrong; that this is a statutory offense, and to convict defendant thereof, he must he guilty of the very crime charged, to wit: an assault with a deadly weapon with intent to infliÁbodily injury upon a person, and not upon an animal near such person. \\,</p> <p>A party may be convicted of murder ór of an assault, though\\no specific intent may have existed to commit the crime of murder or assauAupon the person charged—as where a man shoots at one person and kills another. So a man may be guilty of manslaughter, under some circumstances, by his mere carelessness. The general malice and the unlawful act are enough to constitute the offense in these cases. But this rule has no application to a statutory offense, like that of an assault with a deadly weapon with intent to inflict bodily injury upon the person of another.</p> <p>The battery or wounding is no part of this statutory offense. The offense is complete by the assault, the weapon and the intent.</p>