Opinion ID: 2121934
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts of the case and case history

Text: The defendant Ronald Wynn, his brother Kenneth Wynn, and James White were charged on two counts, robbery armed and breaking and entering with intent to commit felonious assault. The complainant Ruth Turner and her new boyfriend Ernest Jackson were badly beaten and treated at a hospital as a result of the defendants entering her apartment about midnight and finding the two of them in bed together. Ruth Turner admitted previous intimacies with James White but stated that they had subsequently quarreled violently and he had beaten her and threatened her life. She testified she had asked for her keys back from him and told him not to come to her apartment again. Both she and Ernest Jackson testified to meeting with neighbors in her apartment the night of the incident. Afterwards before retiring, they fastened a sliding inner latch she had put on her apartment door for fear of White using his key to get in. Ruth Turner further testified that defendants broke in after midnight, that White beat her with a pistol, said Get up bitch, and later continued to beat her while Ronald Wynn held her. Ernest Jackson testified to the breaking in and being pistol whipped. Both testified to being hospitalized. One of the neighbors, Cora Brown, testified to hearing a commotion in the Turner apartment hours after visiting Turner and Jackson and hearing White whom she had met through Ruth Turner say Get up bitch. After she heard that she ran for help and the police. Later she saw the three defendants running away. Officer Lawrence Seneski who policed the disturbance testified that when he arrived shortly after the incident and the defendants had fled, he found the bottom panel of the door had been kicked out. Detective John Uruhart testified that later that morning he went to interview Ruth Turner and found the bottom panel of the door was opened, looked as though it was kicked out, but was back in the place when I arrived there. Officer Seneski testified both Turner and Jackson had multiple abrasions and lacerations about the face and were bleeding about the nose and mouth. He also said her eyes were swollen and that both left for the hospital. Ronald Wynn and White testified for the defense that they visited the Turner apartment near midnight because she had earlier in the day requested by phone that White come and see her, that they entered using the key that Ruth Turner had given White, which White said she had begged him to keep. That key and the outside apartment building door key were introduced into evidence. They testified that they did nothing but talk until Jackson lunged at White with a knife, when White hit Jackson and disarmed him, and shortly after this, at Wynn's urging they left, although White said Jackson offered him a beer and said Let's reason this out, man to man. Before charging the jury, the Honorable Robert DeMascio, trial judge, called the three counsel for the three defendants and the assistant prosecutor into chambers for discussion of jury charges. It was here that defendant Wynn claims that a request for an instruction on lesser included offenses was made. (The record of the colloquy will be set out later.) After the court charged the jury and the jury had retired, the court asked counsel for Additions or corrections. A number of requests were made but none went to a lesser included offense charge. Certain additional charges were made, after which counsel were asked again whether there were further requests, but all said they were satisfied. On January 17, 1969, the jury found defendant Ronald Wynn guilty on the charge of breaking and entering with intent to commit a felonious assault. However, the jury could not reach a verdict on the charge of robbery armed, and the charge was subsequently dismissed. The Court of Appeals affirmed the defendant's conviction on February 22, 1971. The Court held that though the defendant produced evidence compatible with lesser included offenses, the trial court did not err in failing to instruct as to the lesser included offenses as none of the three attorneys for the codefendants objected to the instructions as given. On May 19, 1971, this Court granted the defendant's delayed application for leave to appeal. The defendant requests a new trial on the grounds that the lesser included offenses of entering without breaking and entering without permission should have been included in the instructions to the jury. He contends that once a request for an instruction has been made and denied, an objection to the instructions as given serves no purpose and thus is not necessary. The defendant cites GCR 1963, 507.5 for the proposition that if a party makes known to the court the action which it desires, a formal objection is not necessary. The people argue first no one made a request for a lesser included charge; second, defendant Ronald Wynn's attorney never requested such a charge; third, the codefendant's attorney who requested such an instruction acquiesced in the trial court's ruling that such an instruction would not be given; fourth, even if a request for such an instruction were in fact made and should have been granted, failure of the trial court to give it does not constitute reversible error as no objection was raised to the instructions as given. The people rely upon GCR 1963, 516 which states: 1. Request for Instructions. At or before the close of the evidence, any party may, or at any time the Court reasonably directs, the parties shall, file written requests that the Court instruct the jury on the law as set forth in the request.    2. Objections. No party may assign as error the giving or the failure to give an instruction unless he objects thereto before the jury retires to consider the verdict, stating specifically the matter to which he objects and the grounds of his objection. Opportunity shall be given to make the objection out of the hearing of the jury. In addition, the people argued that the question raised in the trial court by defense counsel relative to lesser included offenses concerned breaking without intent to steal or entering without permission, whereas the theory of defendant's case was based on entry with permission i.e., with the victim's keys. In other words the alleged request for inclusion of lesser offenses concerned entry without permission, whereas the defendant's case was based on an inconsistent theory of entry with permission.