Opinion ID: 854072
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Young's Involuntary Manslaughter Instruction

Text: Young also asserts the trial court erred in refusing to accept his instruction on involuntary manslaughter. Whether involuntary manslaughter is a lesser included offense in this case is a nice question, but we are satisfied that it was properly refused because there was not a serious evidentiary dispute. It is the intent element that distinguishes involuntary manslaughter, battery, and criminal recklessness from murder. Simpson v. State, 628 N.E.2d 1215, 1221 (Ind.Ct.App.1994), trans. denied. To prove murder, the State must show that the defendant knowingly killed. Ind.Code Ann. § 35-42-1-1 (West Supp.1997). To prove involuntary manslaughter, the State need show only that the defendant recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally inflicted serious bodily injury on another person, and killed that person in the course of such acts. Ind.Code Ann. § 35-42-1-4 (West 1986); Ind.Code Ann. § 35-41-2-2 (West 1986). This language is admittedly broad, but our cases shed additional light on the state of mind generally required to convict one of involuntary manslaughter by showing the defendant killed while violating our criminal recklessness statute. As opposed to murder, the involuntary manslaughter statute, when coupled with the criminal recklessness statute, is generally applied to individuals who engage in random dangerous conduct which is not necessarily directed at another, but which results in the foreseeable death of another. The paradigmatic case occurs when an individual kills another while driving an automobile in a dangerous manner. In the present case, the facts indicate that Young knew the gun he pointed and fired at the gathered crowd was loaded. Cf. Al-Saud v. State, 658 N.E.2d 907 (Ind.1995) (unloaded gun can create a sufficient risk of bodily injury to others to convict of criminal recklessness). Young also must have realized people were standing in the general direction of his firing. Finally, Young's taunting words and the fact that he returned and fired more shots at the house resolves any dispute in our minds about whether Young's acts were somehow analogous to our involuntary manslaughter/criminal recklessness cases. Accordingly, there is no serious evidentiary dispute regarding whether Young committed the factually included lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter but not murder or reckless homicide. The trial judge was correct in refusing Young's tendered instruction on involuntary manslaughter.