Opinion ID: 1538362
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Is assault with intent to kill by one armed with a dangerous weapon a lesser included offense of armed assault and battery?

Text: The response to this question parallels the answer to the previous one. Even if we are to assume for the purpose of this discussion that all the other elements of the offense of assault with intent to kill by one armed with a dangerous weapon are included within the offense of armed assault and battery, assault with intent to kill by one armed with a dangerous weapon includes an element which armed assault and battery clearly does not: an intention to kill. A person who commits the offense of armed assault and battery does not necessarily intend to kill his victim. This being the case, it follows that assault with intent to kill by one armed with a dangerous weapon is not a lesser included offense of armed assault and battery. Bowden, Bessey, Leeman, supra. We conclude that since neither armed assault and battery nor assault with intent to kill by one armed with a dangerous weapon is a lesser included offense of the other, they are distinct offenses, and the presiding Justice did not err by instructing the jury that they could find the defendant guilty of both of these crimes, based on Gagne's single act of shooting Larrabee. Jellison, supra, 104 Me. at 281, 71 A. at 718.