Nathaniel Hill’s brother died from a stab wound to his chest that he received during an altercation with Hill on September 16, 2003. A Fulton County jury found Hill guilty of voluntary manslaughter, OCGA § 16-5-2, as a lesser-included offense of felony murder, OCGA § 16-5-1 c; aggravated assault, OCGA § 16-5-21 a 2 with an object that when used offensively against a person is likely to result in serious bodily injury ; and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony against or involving the person of another, OCGA § 16-11-106 b 1. Following the denial of his motion for a new trial, Hill appeals, contending, inter alia, that the trial court erred when it refused to give the jury instruction he requested regarding the defense of accident. Hill argues that the accident charge was warranted by evidence adduced at trial that the victim was accidentally impaled on a knife Hill was holding. For the reasons explained below, we reverse. The record shows that the only eyewitness, a neighbor who was visiting the victim the evening he died, could not say whether Hill intentionally stabbed the victim. The neighbor testified that he was in the restroom when he heard Hill arguing with the victim in the hall between their bedrooms and heard the sounds of a struggle. When the neighbor came out of the restroom, he saw Hill and the victim still “tussling” and then heard the victim say, “he stabbed me.” The neighbor never saw any weapons.
Hill testified at trial that he and the victim began arguing after he came home from work that day. According to Hill, he went to the door of the victim’s bedroom to speak to the neighbor who was visiting the victim, and the victim forcefully pushed him back into his Hill’s own room across the hall. Hill testified that the victim, who was much taller than he is, got a large pipe wrench and “put it in batting range.” At that point, according to Hill, he felt threatened, and because of that he picked up his work knife, which was lying on his dresser. Hill testified, “I said, ‘If you hit me, I am going to stick you.’ I was just teasing, you know. He ran up on me, I swear, he stuck himself. When I stuck him, I caught him as he fell toward me because I felt that I had stuck him.” Hill theorized that his knife scratched the victim’s back as he caught the victim under the arms and that is how the victim acquired a second, superficial knife wound to his back. Hill told the neighbor to call 911 while he gave the victim mouth-to-mouth resuscitation; he did not flee the scene. Hill testified that he did not mean to kill the victim, that he was “sorry for what happened,” and that “it was a mistake.”
