Ferrell v. State

Per Curiam. Convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court for Montgomery ³⁵⁶ County of assault with intent to murder, and sentenced to imprisonment, Francis A. Ferrell appeals, alleging an insufficiency of evidence of an intent to murder and error in the admission of photographs of the victim. The victim testified that the appellant, with whom she had previously lived, attacked her from behind as she was unlocking her car door at her place of employment, threatened to kill her, and, in an ensuing struggle, struck her with a knife, cutting her hands and neck. A doctor testified that it took between 40 and 45 stitches to close her cuts, and that while the wound on her neck did not prove to be too serious “as it turned out”, it was an inch to an inch and a half long, one-half to three-quarters of an inch deep, and was approximately two and one-half inches from her jugular vein.

The appellant claimed that the meeting with the victim was prearranged, that the struggle was over the car keys to determine who would drive, and that the victim was cut when she grabbed the knife from the appellant’s hand as he was transferring it from his coat pocket to his trousers’ pocket. The appellant claims there was no evidence to show an intent to murder, but we believe the evidence was sufficient to support the jury’s finding that he was guilty of assault with intent to murder. “The.