State v. Chaplin

WEBBER, Justice.

On appeal. Defendant, indicted for the murder of his wife, was by jury verdict convicted of manslaughter. The defendant elected to testify in his own behalf and some of the facts are not in dispute. While engaged in a struggle in their home involving the possession of a hunting knife, either (a) the defendant stabbed his wife, or (b) he suddenly relinquished his grasp upon the knife and she accidentally stabbed herself. Immediately thereafter he assisted her out of the apartment and to the lawn where she lay until removed to the hospital by ambulance. During that period she…