Opinion ID: 2513979
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Criminally Negligent Homicide Instruction & The Defendant's Theory of the Case

Text: The majority agrees that an instruction on criminally negligent homicide was required because it comported with Mata-Medina's theory of defense. I now proceed to discuss the nature of this offense in comparison to the offenses upon which the jury was instructed to show that the jury here was never permitted to determine the crux of the casewhether Mata-Medina failed to perceive the risk of Gettler's death, but was nonetheless guilty of a lesser offense. The jury was instructed on the offenses of second degree murder and reckless manslaughter. A person commits the crime of murder in the second degree if the person knowingly causes the death of a person. § 18-3-103, 6 C.R.S. (2002). Presuming Mata-Medina cause[d] the death of Gettler, the jury evaluated whether he did so knowingly. A person acts knowingly with respect to conduct ... when he is aware that his conduct is practically certain to cause the result. § 18-1-501(6), 6 C.R.S. (2002) (emphasis added). An awareness of the risk of death is also required when a person commits reckless manslaughter. A person commits the crime of manslaughter if such person recklessly causes the death of another person. § 18-3-104, 6 C.R.S. (2002). Again, assuming that Mata-Medina cause[d] the death of Gettler, the death was committed recklessly if he  consciously disregard[ed] a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a result will occur. § 18-1-501(8) (emphasis added). Both second degree murder and reckless manslaughter require awareness of the risk of death as a result of conduct. In contrast, criminally negligent homicide requires that a person cause the death of another when, through a gross deviation from the standard of reasonable care, he fails to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that death will result from certain conduct. §§ 18-3-105, 18-1-501(3), 6 C.R.S. (2002). The divide in mens rea between reckless manslaughter and second degree murder, on one side, and criminal negligence, on the other, is significant when the issue is awareness, and not a mere variation in degree, as it would be were the issue the extent of the risk. People v. Shaw, 646 P.2d 375, 380 (Colo.1982) (distinction between acting recklessly and acting with criminal negligence is the difference between, on the one hand, becoming aware yet consciously disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death from one's conduct, and, on the other, failing to perceive, through a gross deviation from the reasonable care standard, a substantial and unjustifiable risk that death will result from one's conduct); People v. Bettis, 43 Colo.App. 104, 602 P.2d 877, 878 (1979) (between recklessness and criminal negligence the distinction is between becoming aware of a risk yet consciously choosing to disregard it as opposed to negligently failing to become aware of the risk.). In light of the facts of this case, the difference in culpability requirements between the offenses is sufficiently different that a jury did not reject the defense theory that the defendant was guilty of criminally negligent homicide. Specifically, the jury never addressed whether Mata-Medina committed a criminally negligent act by failing to perceive a risk of death. Rather, the jury only addressed whether the degree of risk involved would support recklessness or conduct committed knowingly. Mata-Medina furnished the jury with an evidentiary basis to conclude that he, unaware of the risk of death from a blow to the neck, failed to perceive the risk of death when he hit Gettler in the neck. Thus, in the context of the evidence presented at trial, it was for a jury to determine the material fact whether Mata-Medina was aware of the risk that a strike to the neck could cause immediate and sudden death. A jury should have had the option to convict Mata-Medina on a charge that was consistent with the evidence and with his defense. Here, however, the trial court gave to the jury two choices: find some degree of awareness of the risk of Gettler's death from his conduct or acquit him. Given that overwhelming evidence connected Mata-Medina to Gettler's death, despite any reasonable doubts jurors may have had as to his awareness of the risk entailed by his actions, a jury would have convicted him on some charge. See Keeble v. United States, 412 U.S. 205, 212-13, 93 S.Ct. 1993, 36 L.Ed.2d 844 (1973) (discussing the necessity of a lesser-included offense in light of the likelihood that a jury is likely to resolve doubts in favor of a conviction where its only options are to convict or acquit when the jury possesses knowledge that the defendant committed some crime). In that respect, this case is no different than the numerous other cases in which we found reversible constitutional error for a failure to instruct on a lesser included offense/theory of defense because it is for the jury, under proper circumstances, and not the trial court to weigh and consider the evidence. Crawford v. People, 12 Colo. 290, 20 P. 769 (1889); People v. Nunez, 841 P.2d 261, 265 (Colo.1992) (reversible error to refuse theory of defense as it is for the jury and not the court to determine the credibility of the witnesses, the weight of the testimony, and the adequacy of the defendant's theory of the defense); Read v. People, 119 Colo. 506, 509, 205 P.2d 233, 235 (1949) (nothing in our criminal practice is more thoroughly established or definitely settled than the principle that when there is any evidence, however improbable, unreasonable or slight, which tends to reduce the homicide to a lower grade, a defendant is entitled to an instruction); Shaw, 646 P.2d at 379-80 (citing People v. Watkins, 196 Colo. 377, 586 P.2d 43 (1978) (second degree murder conviction reversed where court refused to instruct jury on criminally negligent homicide); People v. Miller, 187 Colo. 239, 529 P.2d 648 (1974) (first degree murder conviction reversed where court refused to instruct on lesser offenses of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter); Sanchez v. People, 172 Colo. 168, 470 P.2d 857 (1970) (second degree murder conviction reversed due to court's failure to instruct on involuntary manslaughter); Ferrin v. People, 164 Colo. 130, 433 P.2d 108 (1967) (first degree murder conviction reversed where court refused to instruct on voluntary manslaughter); Gallegos v. People, 136 Colo. 321, 316 P.2d 884 (1957) (first degree murder conviction reversed due to court's refusal to instruct on voluntary and involuntary manslaughter); Read, 119 Colo. 506, 205 P.2d 233 (second degree murder conviction reversed due to court's refusal to instruct on voluntary and involuntary manslaughter); Baker v. People, 114 Colo. 50, 160 P.2d 983 (1945) (second degree murder conviction reversed where court refused to instruct on voluntary and involuntary manslaughter)). Because the trial court erred when it refused to instruct the jury on a lesser included offense of criminally negligent homicide; because the jury was effectively instructed that to believe Mata-Medina's version of events required his acquittal; because the jury was not given an option to convict him on his theory of defense; and because substantial evidence connected Mata-Medina to Gettler's death, such that a jury would have trouble acquitting him knowing that he was involved somehow in the crime; I would find the error here to be of the same type that we have so often found reversible.