v.
State
Sullivan and O’Neil were indicted in the superior court of Chatham county for the murder of one Brooks in the year 1896. They were jointly tried, found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, and sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary for fifteen years. Their motion for a new trial on various grounds was overruled in the superior court; a writ of error was sued out to the judgment overruling the motion; and the judgment of the court below was affirmed by this court. Sullivan et al. v. State, 101 Ga. 800. On the 22d day of December, 1897, one of the defendants, O’Neil, filed in the superior court of Chatham county another motion for a new trial, on alleged extraordinary grounds. On the hearing of the latter motion the trial judge overruled it; exception was taken to this action, and we are now asked to review his judgment so rendered. The extraordinary grounds upon which this second motion for a new trial is based are, briefly stated: (1) Because[*539] of the newly discovered evidence of J. F. Henderson, which was to the effect that on the night of the homicide, he saw two negroes on the street, concealed by the shadow of a building, suddenly emerge as O’Neil and another white man approached, and one of the negroes (presumably the deceased) struck O’Neil on the head with a stick and felled him to the sidewalk, etc., and that the man who was with O’Neil fired on the negro, the shooting, however, having been done after the second attempt of the negro to strike O’Neil. Other details were given in the affidavit which tended to show that O’Neil was attacked before the shooting and resulting homicide. (2) Because of the newly discovered evidence of Angie Belmont, shown by an affidavit attached to the motion, concerning which the ground of the motion states: “Which facts as testified to by her in said affidavit were known to this defendant at the time of the trial, but which facts said Angie Belmont did not admit to be true until she consented to make said affidavit. Because of the animosity of said Angie Belmont towards this defendant, he did not consider it wise to force her to testify.” (3) Because of the newly discovered evidence of T. C. Murphey, the arresting officer, shown by an affidavit, concerning which the ground of the motion states that: “Said testimony of T. O. Murphey was known to this defendant, but was not procured at the trial because of the animosity of Murphey towards him, and of the partiality of Murphey for Sullivan, his codefendant.” (4) Because of statements by one Anderson to Fleming and Vetter, made since the defendant has been confined in the penitentiary, concerning which the ground of the motion states that: “Said statements of Anderson are contradictory of his testimony at the trial, and indicative of his animosity and perjury at the time of the trial.” (5) Because of the statements made by one Payton since the plaintiff in error has been confined in the penitentiary, concerning which the motion says: “which statements are indicative of his animosity and perjury at the time of the trial, as shown by the affidavit of B. F. Murphey.” (6) A certified copy of the affidavit made by George Budge on the first motion for a new trial, which, the motion states, strongly corroborates the evidence of J. F. Henderson, the witness named[*540] in the first ground of the present motion. This motion was heard by the judge of the superior court of the Eastern circuit, who passed on the same, making the following order: “ After full consideration of the within extraordinary motion for new trial, in the light of the evidence adduced upon the former motion, and the grounds of said former motion, and the adjudication of the Supreme Court of Georgia thereon, it is ordered that this extraordinary motion for a new trial be and the same is hereby refused.” Signed, R. Ealligant, Judge. Savannah, Ga. March 2d, 1898. The former motion for a new trial was based on the grounds, that the verdict rendered was contrary to law, to the evidence, and to the weight of the evidence; on certain rulings of the court as to the admission of certain evidence, and the rejection of certain evidence offered; and because of newly discovered evidence of George Budge, and upon other grounds not material to be stated here.
Under the first of these cardinal rules, the motion, in so far as it is based on the ground of the alleged newly discovered evidence of Belmont and Murphey, must fail, because the recitals in the second and third grounds of the motion show that the facts which these witnesses knew were not discovered after the trial, but were in fact known to the movant at the time of his trial. The provision of the Civil Code, § 5480, is, that a new trial may be granted in all cases when any material evidence, not merely cumulative in its character but relating to new and material facts, shall be discovered by the applicant after the rendition of a verdict against him; and by section 5481, it most appear that neither the movant nor his counsel knew of the existence of such evidence before the trial. See also Sellers v. State, 99 Ga. 212. Counsel for plaintiff in error cites the case of Hayes v. Westbrook, 96 Ga. 219, as authority that the court should have granted the new trial on the ground of -the newly discovered evidence of the two witnesses named. A reference to that case, however, induces us to think that it does not support his contention. On the contrary, the case is based,. by the ruling of the court, exclusively on the special facts of that particular case, which involve an application of an entirely different principle of law from that which arises in the case at bar; the ruling made by that decision is, that motions for new trials made out of term, upon extraordinary grounds, are not favored by the courts. Nor does the case of Phillips v. State, 33 Ga. 281, more strongly support the contention. It[*542] appears in that case, that the defendant knew that the witness was present, and applied to him to learn what he would testify. The witness told him that he knew nothing, thus misleading the accused, whom, the court said, was not guilty of any laches in his effort to get the evidence. The case of Thomas v. State, 52 Ga. 509, cited by the plaintiff in error, being a case where Thomas ~was indicted for assault with intent to murder by striking another with a hatchet, is also a case where the accused was misled on inquiry of the persons present at the time of the difficulty, by their telling him that they did not see the blow struck. In the present case, the plaintiff in error could not have been misled, because it is recited in the grounds of the motion relating to the testimony of the two witnesses that he did know the facts as testified to by such witnesses in the affidavits attached to the motion, but did not consider it wise to force the witnesses to testify at the trial. The evidence of these two witnesses, therefore, must be held to be not newly discovered.
Judgment affirmed.