Opinion ID: 1426947
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Failing to object to the instruction on lying in wait.

Text: Jury instruction no. 21 stated: All murder which is committed by lying in wait is as a matter of law, murder in the first degree, whether the killing was intentional or accidental. Lying in wait consists of watching, waiting and concealment from the person killed with the intention of inflicting bodily injury upon such person or of killing such person. (Emphasis added.) Leonard objects to the two emphasized phrases. The second paragraph is a sound statement of the law since it comes directly from Moser v. State, 91 Nev. 809, 813, 544 P.2d 424, 426 (1975). Therefore, it was not ineffective for counsel not to object to it. The first paragraph seems to have no direct source in Nevada law. However, the state cites People v. Laws, 12 Cal.App.4th 786, 15 Cal.Rptr.2d 668, 673-74 (1993), which holds that under the relevant California statute, any murdernot killingcommitted by lying in wait is first-degree murder. This is so even if the murder resulted from an accidental killing. Id. at 674. For example, it is normally second-degree murder if someone shoots a gun toward a person, intending only to scare the person, but hits and kills the person by mistake; however, such a murder perpetrated by lying in wait is of the first degree. Id. The first paragraph of the instruction, if carefully read, is consistent with Laws. However, this court need not decide whether the reasoning in Laws applies to the relevant Nevada statute (NRS 200.030(1)(a)) or whether the first paragraph of the instruction might mislead a reasonable juror. Even assuming that the instruction was erroneous or misleading, Leonard was not prejudiced. There is no basis to conclude that the jury found the killing accidental since Leonard stabbed Wright twenty-one times. This is confirmed by the fact that the jurors returned a verdict form which indicated that they found Leonard guilty of first-degree murder both by deliberation and premeditation and by lying in wait. Therefore, the jury found the necessary intent for first-degree murder.