Opinion ID: 2013237
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: issues

Text: The Defendant assigns as error the trial court's refusal to give the following instruction: DEFENDANT'S FINAL INSTRUCTION NO. 8 Under the facts and circumstances of this case if you find the Defendant not guilty of the crime of murder you must then consider whether or not the Defendant committed the crime of ASSISTING A CRIMINAL. The Defendant argues that the instruction should have been given because assisting a criminal is a lesser included offense of murder and because evidence supported the giving of the instruction. The Defendant relies upon Moore v. State, (1983) Ind. App., 445 N.E.2d 576, 578 ( transfer denied ), in which the Court of Appeals stated that assisting a criminal is a lesser included offense of murder and attempted murder. The statement in Moore, however, is overly broad. Assisting a criminal is not, in every instance, a lesser included offense of murder. Indiana employs a two step analysis for determining what constitutes lesser included offenses. Lawrence v. State, (1978) 268 Ind. 330, 337, 375 N.E.2d 208, 212; Roddy v. State, (1979) Ind. App., 394 N.E.2d 1098, 1102-1113 ( rehearing denied ). The first step involves a determination of whether the lesser offense is included within the crime charged. Two types of included offenses are found in our case law. In Roddy, Judge Staton, writing for the Court of Appeals, characterized them as inherently included and possibly included offenses. The inherently included lesser offense exists when, by definition, it is impossible to commit the greater offense without committing the lesser offense. An offense is possibly included depending upon the manner and means allegedly employed in the commission of the charged crime. Roddy v. State, 394 N.E.2d at 1105-1106; See also Jones v. State, (1982) Ind., 438 N.E.2d 972, 974. A determination of whether an offense is inherently included requires an examination of the relevant statutes which define the crimes. Murder is the knowing or intentional killing of another human being or the killing of another human being while committing or attempting to commit arson, burglary, child molesting, criminal deviate conduct, kidnapping, rape, or robbery. Ind. Code § 35-42-1-1 (Burns 1979). Assisting a criminal is the harboring, concealment or otherwise assisting a person who has committed a crime or is a fugitive from justice, with the intent to hinder the apprehension or punishment of that person, by one who is neither parent, child, nor spouse to that person. Ind. Code § 35-44-3-2 (Burns 1979). It is obvious that one may commit murder without committing the crime of assisting a criminal; hence, assisting a criminal is not an inherently included lesser offense of murder. We then turn to the question of whether assisting a criminal is a possibly included lesser offense of murder. Such a determination must be made on a case by case basis by examining the factual allegations of the charging instrument. If the elements of the lesser offense are alleged to have been committed in the charging instrument, the Defendant may be entitled to an instruction on the lesser included offense. Jones v. State, 438 N.E.2d at 975; Roddy v. State, 394 N.E.2d at 1106. In the case at bar, the charging information, omitting formal parts, was as follows: BARRY RUTHERFORD swears that BRIAN COOMBS AND GARRY REYNOLDS late of the County and State aforesaid, on or about the 1st day of October A.D. 1981 did then and there, at and in said County and State kill another human being, to wit: Mark R. Coombs, DOB: 9-11-62, while committing robbery, to-wit: by knowingly or intentionally taking United States currency from Mark R. Coombs by using force, then and there being contrary to the form of the Statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Indiana. The information did not allege any conduct by Defendant that would have comprised the offense of assisting a criminal. Assisting a criminal, then, is neither inherently included nor possibly included as a lesser included offense of murder in the case at bar, and the court properly refused Defendant's tendered instruction No. 8. In that we have determined that the offense is not included in the crime charged, we do not move to step two of the rationale and methodology outlined in Lawrence v. State, (1978) 268 Ind. 330, 375 N.E.2d 208 and Roddy v. State, (1979) Ind. App., 394 N.E.2d 1098.