Opinion ID: 1161781
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: reckless manslaughter

Text: Defendant contends it was error not to include an instruction on reckless manslaughter. We disagree. Defendant's testimony indicated that the murder was anything but reckless. He stated, she slapped me ... I went back to the car because I had [the gun] in the car. I brought it out and I shot it.... I was boiling by then. Then I shot.... [S]he started insulting me [and] ... she kicked me, that's when I unloaded the pistol [in her]. His conduct was deliberate and not reckless. We find no error. Even if it had been error, it would have been harmless. By convicting a defendant of first degree rather than second degree murder, the jury rejected defendant's claim that his intoxication was such as to lessen his culpability. In other words, by finding defendant guilty of the highest offense, to the exclusion of the immediately lesser-included offense, second degree murder, the jury necessarily rejected all other lesser-included offenses. The error, if indeed it was error, of not instructing as to such offenses was harmless. State v. White, 144 Ariz. 245, 247, 697 P.2d 328, 330 (1985); see also State v. Nowlin, 244 N.W.2d 591 (Iowa 1976).