Opinion ID: 2084499
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sufficiency of the Evidence of Intent to Kill

Text: Finally, Walls challenges his conviction of assault with intent to kill on the ground that the government failed to prove that he specifically intended to kill Ramon Cherry. Applying the familiar standard of review for claims of evidentiary insufficiency, we are easily convinced that there was sufficient evidence from which a reasonable juror could fairly conclude guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. McAdoo v. United States, 515 A.2d 412, 427 (D.C.1986) (citations omitted); accord, e.g., Ruffin v. United States, 642 A.2d 1288, 1291 (D.C.1994). Under the concurrent intent doctrine, a specific intent to kill each individual may be imputed to a defendant who fires multiple shots at two or more persons at close range. See, e.g., Ruffin, 642 A.2d at 1298 (defendant unloosed a hail of bullets at one person and wounded him, but another person in the direct line of fire was killed, and a third was wounded; in these circumstances the evidence permitted a finding of concurrent intent to kill everyone in the path of the bullets); Gray v. United States, 585 A.2d 164, 165 (D.C. 1991) (firing three shots at close range in the direction of three children was sufficient to prove a specific intent to kill each of them); Fletcher v. United States, 335 A.2d 248, 251 n. 5 (D.C.1975) (firing at a group of police officers at close range supported a finding of specific intent to kill each officer). We see no material difference between these cases and the case at bar. We hold accordingly that the evidence in this case permitted the jury to find that, by firing in the direction of both Moore and Cherry, Walls had an intent to kill everyone in the zone of danger which he thereby created. Ruffin, 642 A.2d at 1298. Although the evidence arguably does not exclude every hypothesis inconsistent with intent to kill  Walls might conceivably have intended only to kill Moore  this does not invalidate the jury's verdict. Gray, 585 A.2d at 165 (citation omitted).