Opinion ID: 2049680
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: People v Ring

Text: On the morning of March 7, 1977, a roofing company's work crew was temporarily blocking traffic while backing a truck into a driveway. One of the company's employees, Tom Heney, was directing traffic around the truck. Defendant David Ring approached the stopped traffic. The testimony presented at the preliminary examination offers two interpretations of the events that followed. Defendant testified that he stopped and was directed around the truck by Heney. While passing the truck, defendant heard a loud thud coming from the side of his automobile. He stopped and got out of his car. The person directing traffic was very angry with defendant and made obscene gestures and comments. Defendant got back in his car and left. Members of the working crew presented a different version of the incident. They testified that defendant ignored the signal to stop, wove in and out of traffic and forced his way through the bottleneck, nearly striking Heney. The truck was subsequently parked off the street. About 20 minutes later the company personnel noticed defendant's automobile returning and came down from the roof to obtain his license-plate number. Defendant stopped on the street. Complainant, Roger VorenKamp, was the first to reach the street. He approached defendant's automobile. Defendant and VorenKamp exchanged words. Ring then produced a pistol from the seat beside him and pointed it at VorenKamp and then sped away. The employees noted defendant's license-plate number and called the police. Defendant testified he returned to the work site to get the truck license number and that the complainant, carrying his roofing tools, approached within a foot or two of defendant's car and shouted loud and obscene comments at defendant. When complainant told defendant to pull into the driveway so that the matter could be settled, defendant picked up a toy pistol from the front seat of his automobile and pointed it at the complainant. Complainant left immediately and defendant drove off. The police traced the vehicle registration supplied by the work crew to defendant and attempted to find him. Subsequently defendant went to police headquarters of his own volition. He acknowledged the confrontation with VorenKamp but claimed that it was only a toy pistol he had used. Ring handed the police a plastic pistol. The officer showed the toy gun to VorenKamp who stated that it was not the gun which defendant had pointed at him. The police checked the pistol safety inspection records and found that defendant had presented a .38-caliber revolver for safety inspection on June 21, 1976. They confiscated this weapon. The complainant was unable to identify the confiscated gun as the one pointed at him. About five weeks later defendant was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, MCL 750.82; MSA 28.277. Prior to trial defendant requested a jury instruction on the elements of assault with a dangerous weapon. Defendant's Proposed Instruction A reads: The defendant, David Ring, is charged with the crime of assault with a dangerous weapon. This crime is very often referred to as felonious assault. To establish the crime of felonious assault and to establish David Ring's guilt of that crime, the prosecution must prove all three of the following elements beyond a reasonable doubt: (1) That David Ring deliberately pointed a dangerous weapon at the complainant; (2) That, when he did so, if he did so, David Ring intended to do bodily harm to complainant although harm less than murder and less than great bodily harm, and (3) That David Ring acted without excuse or justification.