Opinion ID: 853774
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Refusal of Reckless Homicide Instruction

Text: Etienne tendered a lesser included offense instruction for reckless homicide but the trial court refused to give it, citing Wright v. State, 658 N.E.2d 563 (Ind.1995), after making detailed findings. Wright sets forth a three part test to be applied when trial courts are asked to instruct the jury on a lesser included offense. Parts one and two require the trial court to determine whether the lesser included offense is either factually or inherently included in the greater offense. If so, part three of Wright requires the trial court to determine if there is a serious evidentiary dispute as to any element that distinguishes the greater offense from the lesser. Id. at 567. It is well settled that reckless homicide is an inherently included lesser offense of murder. See McEwen v. State, 695 N.E.2d 79, 85 (Ind.1998) (citing Wright, 658 N.E.2d at 567). The only element distinguishing the two offenses is the defendant's state of mind: reckless homicide occurs when the defendant recklessly kills another human being and murder occurs when the killing is done knowingly or intentionally. Compare IND. CODE § 35-42-1-5 (1998) with id. § 35-42-1-1(1). Reckless conduct is action taken in plain, conscious, and unjustifiable disregard of harm that might result and the disregard involves a substantial deviation from the acceptable standards of conduct. Id. § 35-41-2-2(c). In contrast, a person engages in conduct knowingly if the person is aware of a high probability that he or she is doing so. Id. § 35-41-2-2(b). The trial court refused Etienne's tendered instruction because it found no serious evidentiary dispute as to the mental element of the offense. Because the trial court specifically made a finding of no evidentiary dispute, [5] we review its rejection of the tendered instruction for an abuse of discretion. Brown v. State, 703 N.E.2d 1010, 1019 (Ind.1998) (citing Champlain v. State, 681 N.E.2d 696, 700 (Ind.1997)). The only evidence of reckless conduct that Etienne points to is his pre-shooting conduct of taking a loaded handgun into the volatile situation and his narrowing of the gap between himself and Shane to five or six feet. However, this was not the issue to be decided by the jury. The jury was to determine whether Etienne knowingly killed Shane which, according to the statutory definition quoted in the jury instructions, turned on whether Etienne was aware of a high probability that his conduct might kill Shane. When one aims a gun at another person's shoulder or upper chest area and fires it, he or she is reasonably aware of a high probability that the shot may kill. Accordingly, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing Etienne's reckless homicide instruction. See Sanders v. State, 704 N.E.2d 119, 122-23 (Ind.1999) (upholding the rejection of reckless homicide instruction because the defendant, who also claimed self-defense, testified that he aimed and shot at the victim and accordingly must have known that firing directly at a person at such close range is highly probable to result in death).