Hunter

The defendant was convicted of the crime of assault with a deadly weapon. He prosecutes this appeal from the judgment and the order denying his motion for a new trial.

In August, 1924, defendant’s wife commenced an action against him for divorce. Thereafter she and their two children resided at the Bolden Apartments in Fort Bragg and the defendant occupied a room at the White House in the same town. On the 17th or 18th of September the defendant, who had not been in the habit of carrying a gun, purchased a revolver and a box of cartridges. In the afternoon of the 18th he asked his wife to let him take dinner with her and the children at her apartment that evening, saying he was going away the next day, and she consented. He spent the evening in the apartment with them and while there made statements from which it might be inferred that he intended to kill his wife and take Ms own life. His wife had difficulty in persuading him to leave but, upon her promise that he might return the next morning at 9 o’clock, he finally left. The next morning about 7:30 he called at a barber-shop of which he and his wife were both patrons and while there said to the proprietor, “I don’t think my…