Opinion ID: 780524
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The jury instructions given by the trial court

Text: 41 The written instructions that were given to the jury are not part of the state or district court record in this case. We will therefore base our analysis on the transcript of the oral instructions that were given to the jury. 42 After instructing the jury on the charged offense of murder, the trial court explained that, [i]f all of you are unable to agree on a verdict of either guilty or not guilty of murder, or if you find that the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt all the essential elements of murder, ... you will continue your deliberation to decide whether the State has proved beyond a reasonable doubt all the essential elements of the lesser included offense of involuntary manslaughter based on aggravated assault. The trial court then told the jury that [t]he offense of murder is distinguished from involuntary manslaughter by the absence or failure to prove the purpose to cause death. 43 At this point, the trial court proceeded to set forth the elements of the offense of involuntary manslaughter based on aggravated assault: 44 Before you can find the Defendant, Eric Scott Patterson, guilty of involuntary manslaughter based on aggravated assault, you must find beyond a reasonable doubt that the Defendant, on or about the 18th day of December, 1994, and in Muskingum County, Ohio, caused the death of Lacey Patterson as a proximate result of committing or attempting to commit the offense of aggravated assault. 45 After stating and defining the elements of the predicate felony of aggravated assault, the trial court explained the meaning of the terms cause and proximate result: 46 The State charges that the act or failure to act of the Defendant caused death. Cause is an essential element of the offense. Cause is an act or failure to act which in a natural and continuous sequence directly produces the death without which it would not have occurred. 47 The Defendant's responsibility is not limited to the immediate or most obvious result of the Defendant's act or failure to act. The Defendant is also responsible for the natural and foreseeable consequences that follow, in the ordinary course of events, from the act or failure to act. 48 A death is the result of an act or failure to act when it is produced directly by the act or failure to act in a natural and continuous sequence and which would not have occurred without the act or failure to act. [Proximate] [r]esult occurs when the death is naturally and foreseeably caused by the act or failure to act. 49 The trial court then explained that, if the jury's verdict was not guilty of involuntary manslaughter based on aggravated assault, or if the jurors were unable to agree on a verdict of either guilty or not guilty of involuntary manslaughter based on aggravated assault, they were to continue their deliberations to decide whether the State proved beyond a reasonable doubt all the essential elements of the lesser included offense of involuntary manslaughter based on child endangering. At this point, the trial court stated: 50 Before you can find the Defendant, Eric Scott Patterson, guilty of endangering children, you must find beyond a reasonable doubt that on or about the 18th day of December, 1994, and in Muskingum County, Ohio, the Defendant, Eric Scott Patterson, recklessly abused Lacey Patterson. 51 Abuse means any act which causes physical or mental injury that harms or threatens to harm the child's health or welfare. 52 A person acts recklessly when, with heedless indifference to the consequences, [he] perversely disregards a known risk that his conduct is likely to cause a certain result. A person is reckless with respect to circumstances when, with heedless indifference to the consequences, he perversely disregards a known risk that such circumstances are likely to exist. 53 Substantial risk means a strong possibility, as contrasted with a remote or even a significant possibility, that a certain result may occur or that a certain circumstance may exist. 54 If you find that the State proved beyond a reasonable doubt all the essential elements of the offense of involuntary manslaughter based on child endangering, your verdict must be guilty of involuntary manslaughter. 55 This instruction differs from the preceding one on involuntary manslaughter based on aggravated assault not only because the substantive elements of the predicate offense are different, but because it omits the requirement that Patterson  caused the death of Lacey Patterson as a proximate result of committing or attempting to commit the [predicate act]. (Emphasis added.) Looking solely at the instructions for the offense of conviction, the jury was therefore free to convict Patterson on this charge without finding that the reckless abuse was the proximate cause of Lacey's death. 56 The trial court then proceeded to explain that, if the jury's verdict was not guilty of involuntary manslaughter based on child endangering, or if the jurors were unable to agree on a verdict of either guilty or not guilty of involuntary manslaughter based on child endangering, they were to continue their deliberations to decide whether the State proved beyond a reasonable doubt all the essential elements of the lesser included offense of involuntary manslaughter based on assault. 57 At this point, the trial court stated that, [b]efore you can find the Defendant guilty of assault, you must find beyond a reasonable doubt that on or about the 18th day of December, 1994, and in Muskingum County, Ohio, the Defendant, Eric Scott Patterson, knowingly caused or attempted to cause physical harm to Lacey Patterson. After the trial court defined the term knowingly, it stated: 58 The State charges that the act or failure to act of the Defendant caused death. Cause is an essential element of this offense. Cause is an act or failure to act which in a natural and continuous sequence directly produces the death without which it would not have occurred. 59 The Defendant's responsibility is not limited to the immediate or most obvious result of the Defendant's act or failure to act. The Defendant is also responsible for the natural and foreseeable consequences that follow, in the ordinary course of events, from the act or failure to act. 60 Physical harm to persons means any injury, illness, or other physiological impairment, regardless of its gravity or duration. 61 If you find beyond a reasonable doubt that the Defendant committed the offense of assault — assault and that the death of Lacey Patterson was proximately caused by such unlawful act, then you will find the defendant guilty of involuntary manslaughter even though the Defendant had no purpose or intention of causing the death of Lacey Patterson.