The appellant was indicted for murder and found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. On appeal, he contends that the court erred in failing to charge the jury on self-defense and accident. The appellant shot the victim in the chest with a pistol. Testifying in his own behalf at trial, he described the incident as follows: "We knocked [the pistol] around a couple of times on the ground. I grabbed the end of the gun, the handle part. Jap [the victim] grabbed my hand, and tried to twist it to the right. I twisted it back this way and snatched it . . . When Jap snatched the gun, I fired it. Then Jap run, turned around and run to the house and I shot at the house two times then." It is solely on the basis of this testimony that the appellant contends that charges on self-defense and accident were warranted. The appellant made two tape-recorded statements to police following his arrest, both of which were played to the jury. In the first, he described the shooting as follows: "He was heading for the house when I shot him one time. Then I shot him two more times when he was trying to get in the house." In the second, he gave the following account: "APPELLANT: I shot one from the outside, and then I think when he went in the house, I shot two times in the hallway . . . DETECTIVE: Well, when you shot at him and you think you hit him, was his back to you or was he facing you? APPELLANT: When I shot the first time? DETECTIVE: Uh huh. APPELLANT: He was facing me." Held: The appellant's testimony at trial cannot reasonably be interpreted either as a claim that the shooting occurred in self-defense or as a claim that it occurred by accident, particularly-in the context of his prior statements to police. It follows that the trial court did not err in failing to give charges on self-defense or accident. The two defenses are inconsistent, in any event. "Where a person claims to be acting in self-defense, . . . the defense of accidental killing is not involved. Dobbs v. State, 132 Ga. App. 368 (208 SE2d 178) (1974)." Todd v. State, 149 Ga. App. 574, 575 (3) ( 254 SE2d 894) (1979). |