Opinion ID: 1432040
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: defendant must be actually prejudiced

Text: [3] The fact that we have held the Tongate rule to be retroactive does not necessarily entitle defendant to relief. In order to obtain relief by means of a personal restraint petition, the defendant must also establish that, more likely than not, he was actually prejudiced by the constitutional error. In re Haverty, 101 Wn.2d 498, 681 P.2d 835 (1984); In re Hews, 99 Wn.2d 80, 660 P.2d 263 (1983); In re Hagler, 97 Wn.2d 818, 650 P.2d 1103 (1982). We, therefore, must determine whether petitioner has shown that the failure to instruct the jury on the standard of proof with respect to the firearm allegation worked to his actual and substantial prejudice. In In re Lile, 100 Wn.2d 224, 668 P.2d 581 (1983), the court held the prejudicial effect of the failure to instruct on the presumption of innocence must be determined in light of the totality of circumstances, with consideration given to the trial court's instructions, the arguments of counsel, the weight of evidence of guilt, and other relevant factors. See also Kentucky v. Whorton, 441 U.S. 786, 789, 60 L.Ed.2d 640, 99 S.Ct. 2088, reh'g denied, 444 U.S. 887 (1979). [4] The instant case concerns the prejudicial effect of the failure to instruct on reasonable doubt relative to the deadly weapon allegation for purposes of sentence enhancement. In State v. Cox, 94 Wn.2d 170, 174, 615 P.2d 465 (1980), the court expressly held failure to instruct on reasonable doubt is per se reversible error: The function of informing the jury of the reasonable doubt standard can only be achieved by a specific instruction. Therefore when, as in the McHenry [ State v. McHenry, 88 Wn.2d 211, 558 P.2d 188 (1977)] case, the jury instructions fail to include a specific instruction on reasonable doubt, the omission is per se reversible error. Thus, in the instant case, the trial court's failure to require proof beyond a reasonable doubt on the firearm allegation was per se prejudicial and defendant has met his burden on collateral review. However, even if the totality of circumstances test of In re Lile, supra , is applied, the record in this case shows actual prejudice. Defendant's second degree assault charge arose out of an incident involving two groups of teenage and young adult friends feuding over the theft of a stereo. Gunter, along with his girl friend, was attempting to assist Jerry Johnson and his girl friend recover their stereo which apparently had been stolen. Gunter, Johnson and the two young women traveled to a home where they had reason to believe the stereo was being stored. Fifteen to twenty people emerged from the house. In the ensuing heated discussion over the whereabouts of the stereo, Gunter admittedly struck Michael Crisler in the nose. At trial, all prosecution witnesses testified Gunter had a gun. Gunter denied having a gun or any other weapon. All defense witnesses denied seeing Gunter with a gun or weapon at the crime scene. No gun was recovered or introduced into evidence. The doctor who treated the assault victim testified that the injuries suffered could have been inflicted with a ring or any other hard object and did not necessarily result from being struck with a gun butt. The defense established that Gunter wore a large ring on his hand which was turned over to King County police personnel when defendant was booked. Jail personnel subsequently lost the ring and it remained lost at trial. The prosecutors strongly argued to the jury that the only issue they had to determine was the presence of a gun: This whole case, with all of the facts and a lot of law which has been given to you in this case, boils down to five words: Did he have a gun. If he had a gun, he is guilty as charged under Counts I, II, III and IV, and the special verdict forms are all yes, he had a deadly weapon and yes, it was a firearm. Report of Proceedings, at 283. Moreover, the trial court's instruction 11, defining the elements necessary to convict the defendant on count 4, the count on which he was ultimately convicted, provided as follows: INSTRUCTION NO. 11 To convict the defendant of the crime of assault in the second degree, as charged in Count IV of the information, each of the following elements of the (1) That on or about the 21st day of July, 1976, the defendant knowingly: (a) assaulted Michael Crisler with a weapon or other instrument or thing likely to produce bodily harm; or (b) inflicted grievous bodily harm upon Michael Crisler with or without a weapon. (2) That the acts occurred in King County, Washington. If you find from the evidence that element (2) and either (1)(a) or (1)(b) have been proved beyond a reasonable doubt, then it will be your duty to return a verdict of guilty as to Count IV. Elements (1)(a) and (1)(b) are alternatives and only one need be proved. On the other hand, if, after weighing all of the evidence, you have a reasonable doubt as to any one of these elements, then it will be your duty to return a verdict of not guilty as to Count IV. This instruction allowed the jury to convict Gunter of second degree assault without a finding that he was armed with a firearm. Thus, although they were instructed that they must be convinced of the specific elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard of proof required for the special verdict was ambiguous at best. Absent an explicit instruction on the standard of proof, the jury could not be expected to apply the proper standard to the special verdict when the fact to be found, i.e., presence of a deadly weapon or firearm, is not an element of the crime charged. State v. Tongate, 93 Wn.2d 751, 613 P.2d 121 (1980).