Opinion ID: 1258931
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Consistency with defendant's theory of defense.

Text: To be entitled to an instruction as to a lesser included offense, the defendant's theory of defense must be consistent with a conviction for the lesser offense. See Moore, 105 Nev. at 382, 776 P.2d at 1238 (Nevada law requires jury instructions on defendant's theory of the case when the theory involves a defense or a lesser included offense); Ruland, 102 Nev. at 531, 728 P.2d at 819 (defendant is entitled to a jury instruction on his or her theory of the case; defendant is not entitled to a jury instruction as to a lesser included offense where such an instruction would be inconsistent with the defendant's theory of the case as evidenced by the defendant's own testimony); Block, 95 Nev. at 936, 604 P.2d at 340 (where there is any reasonable theory of the case under which the defendant might be convicted of a ... lesser included offense, the court must, if requested, instruct on the lesser included offense); Lisby v. State, 82 Nev. 183, 187-88, 414 P.2d 592, 595 (1966) (a lesser included offense instruction is unnecessary where the defendant denies any complicity in the crime charged and thus lays no foundation for any intermediate verdict). The district court found this requirement was not satisfied because the defendant's primary theory of defense was that Walker was not the gunman. Yet, at the hearing to settle the jury instructions, defense counsel maintained that his theory of defense included arguing to the jury in closing that, even if the jury found that Walker was the gunman, Walker did not have the intent to kill. Defense counsel stated: Your Honor, in this case the Defendant's, one of the Defendant's theories, aside from the fact that he wasn't there, is that if you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, even if you find that he was there, you cannot state beyond a reasonable doubt that the State has proven that he intended to kill the three individuals that were being shot at that night. At trial, defense counsel elicited testimony that, although the gunman was very close to the victims when he was shooting, he did not hit the victims or any other object. This supports a defense theory that the reason nobody was hit, despite the gunman's proximity to the victims, was because the gunman was not shooting with the intent to kill. In closing argument, the defense stated: And that brings me to the next part, the intent to kill. You have to consider the circumstances surrounding the act itself and if you find that there was an attempt to kill based upon what the evidence was and what the circumstances surrounding the event were, then you can find that it was attempt murder. Now, if it wasn't attempt murder, unfortunately, it was nothing. And if you stood next to someone and pointed a gun right at them and you shot and you intended to kill them from this distance, you could at least hit them, you could at least hit something around them. Just because someone saw fire come out of something doesn't mean that someone was trying to kill them. And I would submit to you that if there was no deadly weapon, there was no attempt murder. I don't know what he was shooting but something was wrong because there weren't any holes. The defense was entitled to proceed on the disparate theories that Walker was not the gunman and that Walker, if he was the gunman, did not intend to kill the victims. We conclude that a conviction for assault with a deadly weapon would have been consistent with the defendant's theory of defense.