Opinion ID: 1057701
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: The Omission of Lesser-Included Offenses Rendered Harmless by the Conviction of the Greater Offense

Text: Mr. Banks also contends that the trial court committed reversible error by failing to charge the jury regarding (1) criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment, (2) facilitation to commit second degree murder, reckless homicide, and criminally negligent homicide as well as reckless endangerment and criminally negligent homicide, (3) aggravated assault, facilitation of aggravated assault, attempted aggravated assault, assault, and reckless endangerment, and (4) theft, as lesser-included offenses of first degree premeditated murder, first degree murder in the perpetration of a robbery, criminal attempt to commit first degree murder, or especially aggravated assault. Mr. Banks requested instructions regarding six of these thirteen offenses. Specifically, he requested the trial court to instruct the jury regarding criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment with regard to the first degree premeditated murder count, facilitation to commit second degree murder and criminally negligent homicide in relation to the first degree murder in the perpetration of a robbery count, reckless endangerment with regard to the criminal attempt to commit first degree murder count, and theft as a lesser-included offense of especially aggravated assault. Because Mr. Banks did not request the trial court to charge the other lesser-included offenses, our review regarding these offenses will be for plain error. For each of the four counts charged in the indictment, the trial court charged the jury with lesser-included offenses including intermediate offenses, buffer offenses standing between the charge Mr. Banks asserts the trial court erred by failing to instruct the jury upon and the charge for which Mr. Banks was convicted. [25] Accordingly, any potential error in failing to charge the eleven above-referenced lesser-included offenses was shown to be harmless error beyond a reasonable doubt through the jury's finding that Mr. Banks was guilty of the greater offense and rejection of the intermediate lesser-included offenses. State v. Locke, 90 S.W.3d at 675; State v. Allen, 69 S.W.3d at 190; State v. Williams, 977 S.W.2d at 106. E.