Opinion ID: 2584947
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Instruct on Assault

Text: Defendant contends the trial court erroneously failed to instruct sua sponte on assault because there was substantial evidence showing the offense he committed was less than the charged robbery and burglary counts. The failure to so instruct, he claims, requires reversal of the robbery and burglary convictions, as well as the first degree murder conviction and special circumstances premised on robbery and burglary.
The information charged defendant with first degree felony murder, robbery, and burglary, and alleged the special circumstances of robbery murder and burglary murder. According to the prosecution's theory of the case, defendant committed a burglary by entering Schmiedt's apartment with the intent to commit a robbery or theft in order to obtain money to feed his expensive drug and alcohol habit. Once inside the apartment, he robbed and killed Schmiedt during his commission of the robbery and burglary. As relevant here, the court instructed the jury on the elements of robbery and burglary, but did not instruct on assault as a lesser included offense of robbery. The court also instructed, in conformity with CALJIC No. 4.21.1 (1992 new), that if there was evidence defendant was intoxicated at the time of the alleged crimes, the jury should consider that fact in determining whether or not the defendant had [the requisite] specific intent or mental state for the crimes of murder, manslaughter, burglary, or robbery.
(5) In determining whether the trial court was required to instruct on assault, we are guided by the following legal principles. A trial court has a sua sponte obligation to instruct the jury on any uncharged offense that is lesser than, and included in, a greater charged offense, but only if there is substantial evidence supporting a jury determination that the defendant was in fact guilty only of the lesser offense. ( People v. Waidla (2000) 22 Cal.4th 690, 733 [94 Cal.Rptr.2d 396, 996 P.2d 46]; People v. Bacigalupo (1991) 1 Cal.4th 103, 127 [2 Cal.Rptr.2d 335, 820 P.2d 559], vacated on other grounds Bacigalupo v. California (1992) 506 U.S. 802 [121 L.Ed.2d 5, 113 S.Ct. 32]; see People v. Breverman (1998) 19 Cal.4th 142, 154-155 [77 Cal.Rptr.2d 870, 960 P.2d 1094].) An uncharged offense is included in a greater charged offense if either (1) the greater offense, as defined by statute, cannot be committed without also committing the lesser (the elements test), or (2) the language of the accusatory pleading encompasses all the elements of the lesser offense (the accusatory pleading test). ( People v. Wolcott (1983) 34 Cal.3d 92, 98 [192 Cal.Rptr. 748, 665 P.2d 520]; People v. Barrick (1982) 33 Cal.3d 115, 133 [187 Cal.Rptr. 716, 654 P.2d 1243]; see People v. Reed (2006) 38 Cal.4th 1224, 1227-1228 [45 Cal.Rptr.3d 353, 137 P.3d 184].) (6) Under the elements test, a court determines whether, as a matter of law, the statutory definition of the greater offense necessarily includes the lesser offense. A robbery is the felonious taking of personal property in the possession of another, from his person or immediate presence, and against his will, accomplished by means of force or fear. (§ 211, italics added.) An assault, however, is an unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to commit a violent injury on the person of another. (§ 240.) Because a robbery can be committed strictly by means of fear, assault is not a lesser included offense of robbery under the elements test. ( People v. Wolcott, supra, 34 Cal.3d at p. 100.) (7) Under the accusatory pleading test, a court reviews the accusatory pleading to determine whether the facts actually alleged include all of the elements of the uncharged lesser offense; if it does, then the latter is necessarily included in the former. ( People v. Reed, supra, 38 Cal.4th at pp. 1227-1228.) Here, the pleadings accused defendant of a taking by force and fear. Analogizing to People v. Barrick, supra, 33 Cal.3d 115, which addressed the accusatory pleading test in the context of vehicle theft and joyriding, defendant contends that, because the robbery as charged was necessarily accompanied by force, it necessarily included the lesser offense of assault. Defendant may be understood to argue he was entitled to instructions on assault because the evidence supported a finding that when he entered Schmiedt's apartment and used force against her, he was so intoxicated he did not actually form or harbor the requisite intent for robbery, i.e., the intent to permanently deprive Schmiedt of her property. [7] In response to defendant's claim, the People rely on People v. Wright (1996) 52 Cal.App.4th 203 [59 Cal.Rptr.2d 316], which specifically held an assault is not necessarily included when a pleading alleges a robbery by force and fear. Wright reasoned that commission of a robbery by force is possible without necessarily committing an assault because the use of force may be actual or constructive, and may include the use of threat to induce fear, even without an attempt to apply force or the present ability for an assault. (52 Cal.App.4th at pp. 210-211.) Even assuming that assault is a lesser included offense of robbery as charged here, the trial court was under no sua sponte obligation to instruct on assault if, in any event, there was no substantial evidence supporting a jury determination that the defendant was in fact guilty only of that offense. (See, e.g., People v. Sakarias (2000) 22 Cal.4th 596, 622, fn. 4 [94 Cal.Rptr.2d 17, 995 P.2d 152]; People v. Bacigalupo, supra, 1 Cal.4th at p. 127.) In making this determination, we turn to defendant's claim that he was so intoxicated when he went to Schmiedt's apartment that he did not form or harbor the specific intent to rob or steal from her. [8] The sum and substance of the evidence relating to intoxication was as follows. Josephine Parson testified that defendant had drugged a whole lot ever since 1960 or 1970, and he could have been supporting a $500-a-day drug habit in 1993. Defendant ingested drugs and alcohol when he stayed with Josephine Parson beginning in November 1993 to sometime before Christmas 1993, and she believed he was on alcohol and/or drugs when he telephoned her on January 2, 1994 (the day after Schmiedt's murder), and again on January 17, 1994 (the date of defendant's arrest in Vancouver, Washington). Jeanne Maccrone and Lawanna Tomason testified that in November 1993, they drank alcohol with defendant. Maccrone also testified that on January 2, 1994, she saw defendant drinking a beer and thought he was drunk. Tomason testified she saw defendant on January 2 and he seemed fine, but on January 3, 1994, she heard defendant slurring his words and thought he might have been smoking marijuana. Detective Edwards and Deputy Marshal Gump testified that on January 6, 1994, they searched defendant's Gilroy motel room and found small amounts of methamphetamine and marijuana, and heroin paraphernalia. When defendant was arrested on January 17, 1994, he appeared to be under the influence of drugs. Whether considered separately or together, the foregoing did not furnish substantial evidence to support a determination that defendant was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time he entered Schmiedt's apartment and used force against her. ( People v. Roldan (2005) 35 Cal.4th 646, 716 [27 Cal.Rptr.3d 360, 110 P.3d 289] [evidence showing the defendant habitually used marijuana and was `ecstatic' and on `cloud nine' a few hours after the crime did not constitute substantial evidence that he was intoxicated or under the influence at the time of the crime]; People v. Horton (1995) 11 Cal.4th 1068, 1119 [47 Cal.Rptr.2d 516, 906 P.2d 478] [although testimony established the defendant had freebased cocaine the day prior to the commission of the crimes, there was no evidence showing he was intoxicated at the time the crimes occurred].) To the contrary, the evidence showed that defendant acted in accordance with a preconceived plan to rob or steal money from Schmiedt, that he successfully convinced her to let him into her apartment, and that he socialized with her until he decided to attack her with a hammer that he brought with him. On this record, the trial court had no sua sponte duty to instruct on the lesser offense of assault.