Ware v. State

The state did not meet its burden of showing that the manner in which the defendant used box cutter to hit her husband and wounds she inflicted with it rendered box cutter a deadly weapon to support an aggravated assault charge.

Thank you for sharing!

Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

We granted Donna Marie Ware’s application for discretionary appeal after her probation was revoked for committing the offense of aggravated assault.1 She appeals, contending that hearsay evidence was erroneously admitted during the revocation hearing and that the evidence was insufficient to support the revocation. The transcript of the revocation hearing shows that Ware’s husband, the victim in this case, asserted his marital privilege and refused to testify. The only witness who testified was Officer Kevin Daniel Montgomery of the Rockmart Police Department. Officer Montgomery testified that he was dispatched to the victim’s mother’s house on March 3, 2007 where he met the victim. Over hearsay objections and after the State argued that the right to confrontation had been met because the victim refused to take the stand and testify, Officer Montgomery was allowed to testify that the victim told him that he had been at home and that his wife came in from being at a crack house and questioned him about being with another woman, which he denied. Montgomery testified the victim stated that he and his wife began to argue, that the argument became physical in nature, and that his wife grabbed a box cutter out of her pocket and “using the non-working end, in a stabbing motion,” hit him on the right side of his face at his nose causing a small cut on the outside of his face and injuring the inside of his mouth.

Officer Montgomery further testified that he left the victim’s mother’s house and went to Ware’s residence, where he found Ware partially clothed and in bed. Montgomery testified that Ware volunteered that she had been asleep and had not been fighting with her husband, that she did not know how he got the cuts on his face and that he must have been fighting with someone else. A box cutter was found in the top drawer of a dresser in the bedroom where the victim told the officers that he had seen Ware place it.

Ware v. State

The state did not meet its burden of showing that the manner in which the defendant used box cutter to hit her husband and wounds she inflicted with it rendered box cutter a deadly weapon to support an aggravated assault charge.

Share with Email

Thank you for sharing!

Trending Stories

More From ALM

Subscribe to Daily Report