Opinion ID: 2182667
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Issue 2 Lesser Included Offense

Text: The trial court refused to give defendant's tendered jury instruction regarding robbery, a class C felony, as a lesser included offense of robbery, the charged offense of robbery, a class B felony. Because the difference between the two crimes is the element of being armed with a deadly weapon, he contends that it is impossible to commit robbery as a class B felony without necessarily committing robbery as a class C felony, and further argues that there was a significant evidentiary dispute as to whether or not defendant was armed during the commission of the robbery, thereby complying with the two-step analysis prescribed in Lawrence v. State (1978), 268 Ind. 330, 375 N.E.2d 208, as implemented in the methodology outlined in Roddy v. State (1979), 182 Ind. App. 156, 394 N.E.2d 1098. While emphasizing the evidence dispute regarding the element, armed with a deadly weapon, which distinguishes the greater and the lesser offense, defendant's argument fails to consider that the defendant's liability for the greater offense results regardless whether he or his accomplice was armed with the weapon. There is no dispute regarding whether a deadly weapon was used during the robbery. Therefore, it would not have been proper to submit a lesser-included offense instruction permitting the jury to find defendant guilty of robbery, a class C felony, as if the robbery had been committed without the use of a deadly weapon. We also note that the tendered instruction was otherwise insufficient, incomplete, and potentially confusing because of its failure to explain the role of a lesser-included offense in its proper context in the case. Riley v. State (1987), Ind., 506 N.E.2d 476; Simpson v. State (1987), Ind., 506 N.E.2d 473; Smith v. State (1981), Ind., 422 N.E.2d 1179; McNary v. State (1981), Ind., 428 N.E.2d 1248. We find no error on this issue.