Opinion ID: 2354297
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Manslaughter in the second degree and assault in the second degree.

Text: Appellant asserts that he was entitled to an instruction on manslaughter in the second degree as a lesser included offense of murder and on assault in the second degree as a lesser included offense of attempted murder because the jury could have believed that he was so intoxicated that he did not form the requisite intent to commit the charged offenses. Evidence of voluntary intoxication does not serve to acquit the defendant, but if it negates the element of intent, reduces the offense to one having a mens rea of wantonness. Caudill, supra, at 669; Slaven, 962 S.W.2d at 856-57. An instruction on voluntary intoxication is warranted only when there is evidence not only that the defendant was drunk, but that [he] was so drunk that [he] did not know what [he] was doing.  Springer, 998 S.W.2d at 439 (emphasis added) (citations omitted). Appellant presented no evidence to satisfy that requirement. He cites his confession, in which he often changed the subject and once stated that he got drunk. He also cites his urine test, which registered positive for PCP, cocaine, and amphetamines, and his blood test, which registered positive for diphenhydramine, an antihistamine. However, there was a plethora of evidence establishing that Appellant gave no indication of being intoxicated and that he knew exactly what he was doing and no evidence to the contrary. He parked his car and walked three miles to the Porter residence. He hid in a tool shed to escape immediate detection. After shooting Mr. and Mrs. Porter, he concealed their bodies and the weapon used to kill them and lay in wait for Armotta. After shooting Armotta, he had the presence of mind to flee the scene and conceal the second weapon in a creek. He was able to find Mitch Nobles's residence, a place he had not visited for almost three years. These are not the actions of a man so intoxicated that he did not know what he was doing. Compare Slaven, supra, at 856-57 (evidence that defendant consumed substantial quantities of alcohol, Xanax, and marijuana, in addition to testimony that defendant was wild and mumbling and pretty doped up prior to the murder warranted instruction on second-degree manslaughter).