Opinion ID: 2638049
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Jury Instruction Regarding Reckless Second-Degree Murder

Text: Jones next contends that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury regarding unintentional but reckless second-degree murder, a lesser included offense of first-degree premeditated murder, as the crime related to the death of Stephanie Childs. This contention lacks merit. At the jury instructions conference, Jones requested an instruction on the lesser included offense. The district court agreed to give the reckless second-degree murder instruction for the crime related to the death of James Brown but refused to give the instruction in relation to the death of Childs. Our standard of review of a refusal to instruct on a lesser included offense is well established. A trial court must instruct the jury on a lesser included offense where there is some evidence which would reasonably justify a conviction of the lesser offense. K.S.A.2005 Supp. 22-3414(3). If the defendant requests the instructions, the trial court has a duty to instruct the jury regarding all lesser included crimes that are established by the evidence, regardless of whether the evidence is weak or inconclusive. State v. Hoge, 276 Kan. 801, 805, 80 P.3d 52 (2003). On review, this court views the evidence in the light most favorable to the defendant. State v. Jones, 279 Kan. 395, 109 P.3d 1158 (2005). An instruction on a lesser included offense is not required if the jury could not reasonably convict the defendant of the lesser included offense based on the evidence presented. Hoge, 276 Kan. at 805, 80 P.3d 52. To prove reckless second-degree murder, the State must show that a human being was killed unintentionally but recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life. K.S.A.2005 Supp. 21-3402(b). The trial court in the present case instructed the jury on voluntary intoxication as a defense to the charges of first-degree premeditated murder and second-degree intentional murder. The instruction, congruent with PIK Crim.3d 54.12-A, stated: Voluntary intoxication may be a defense to the charges of Murder in the First DegreePremeditated where the evidence indicates that such intoxication impaired a defendant's mental faculties to the extent that he was incapable of forming the necessary intent, to-wit: the intentional and premeditated killing of Stephanie Childs as alleged in Count I and the intentional and premeditated killing of James Brown as alleged in Count II. Voluntary intoxication may be a defense to the lesser included charges of Murder in the Second DegreeIntentional where the evidence indicates that such intoxication impaired a defendant's mental faculties to the extent that he was incapable of forming the necessary intent, to-wit: the intentional killing of Stephanie Childs as alleged in Count I and the intentional killing of James Brown as alleged in Count II. Jones argues that, in light of the fact that the trial court gave the voluntary intoxication instruction, the court should also have instructed the jury regarding reckless second-degree murder as to the death of Childs. Jones contends that if the jury had believed he was so intoxicated that he could not form the specific intent to kill Childs, only a general intent would have remained. He argues that, under those circumstances, the highest level of homicide of which he could have been convicted would have been unintentional or reckless second-degree murder. Although voluntary intoxication is not a defense to general intent crimes, a voluntary intoxication defense may be used to negate the intent element of specific intent crimes. State v. Sterling, 235 Kan. 526, 528, 680 P.2d 301 (1984); see also K.S.A. 21-3208(2) (intoxication); State v. Ludlow, 256 Kan. 139, 144-45, 883 P.2d 1144 (1994). This court has indicated, however, that even when it is appropriate to give a voluntary intoxication instruction in a prosecution for first-degree premeditated murder or second-degree intentional murder, evidence of voluntary intoxication alone does not justify an instruction on unintentional but reckless second-degree murder. In State v. Drennan, 278 Kan. 704, 101 P.3d 1218 (2004), the defendant was convicted of the first-degree murder of his girlfriend. In addition to giving a first-degree murder instruction, the trial court instructed the jury regarding voluntary intoxication. One of the defendant's arguments on appeal was that the trial court erred in failing to give an instruction on the lesser offense of reckless second-degree murder. 278 Kan. at 711, 101 P.3d 1218. The defendant asserted that the jury could have found that he recklessly choked the victim by attempting to restrain her in a too aggressive manner and by keeping her in a choke hold too forcefully and too long. 278 Kan. at 715, 101 P.3d 1218. This court disagreed, noting that the defendant's argument ignored crucial facts that pointed to intentional rather than reckless behavior. The Drennan court also quoted the following from State v. Jones, 267 Kan. 627, 984 P.2d 132 (1999), concerning the issue of forming the intent to kill: `What Jones' argument does not take into account is that an intoxicated defendant's being incapable of forming the intent to kill does not transform his or her conduct into conduct so reckless in the circumstances as to manifest extreme indifference to the value of human life. In other words, intoxication can eliminate intent to kill so that the killing is unintentional under the law, but it may not supply the extreme recklessness element of unintentional second-degree murder. Thus, evidence of voluntary intoxication alone will not justify an instruction on reckless second-degree murder as a lesser offense of premeditated first-degree murder.' Drennan, 278 Kan. at 715, 101 P.3d 1218 (quoting Jones, 267 Kan. at 634, 984 P.2d 132). In Drennan, the victim was found with an electrical cord around her neck, and her fingers were bruised from trying to pull the cord away from her neck. The victim was placed in a choke hold with such force that the hyoid bone was broken and neck muscles hemorrhaged. She was choked for at least 4 minutes, and blood and oxygen were cut off to the brain. As in Jones, the Drennan court held the trial court did not err in refusing to give instructions based upon reckless rather than intentional behavior. 278 Kan. at 716, 101 P.3d 1218; see also, Jones, 267 Kan. at 633, 984 P.2d 132 (concluding that Jones' statement that he did not intend to kill the victim was insubstantial and insufficient to support theory of reckless second-degree murder when Jones used his hands to grip her neck hard enough to break pliable bone . . . and long enough4 to 6 minutesto fatally deprive her of oxygen.); accord State v. Cavaness, 278 Kan. 469, 474, 101 P.3d 717 (2004) (voluntary intoxication instruction; no evidence of recklessness; defendant's testimony at most established that victim's death was an unintended consequence of his intentional act of striking victim with baseball bat); State v. Bailey, 263 Kan. 685, 691, 952 P.2d 1289 (1998) ([A] defendant's actions in pointing a gun at someone and pulling the trigger are intentional rather than reckless even if the defendant did not intend to kill the victim.), abrogated on other grounds by State v. Meeks, 277 Kan. 609, 88 P.3d 789 (2004); State v. Pierce, 260 Kan. 859, 867, 927 P.2d 929 (1996) (no evidence of recklessness; at best the evidence on behalf of defendant suggested he did not intend to kill victim but only defended himself by intentionally shooting victim in leg). The State argues that there was no evidence to support a reckless second-degree murder instruction with respect to the death of Childs. We agree. After Brown was hogtied to the bed and shot, Childs ran screaming down the stairs. Jones went after Childs, caught up with her, and wrestled with Childs in the living room. The weapon that was used in this case was a pump-action shotgun that had to be pumped before each shot could be fired. Forensic evidence showed that Childs was shot in the head and that the barrel of the shotgun was located within 1 foot of her head. The evidence pertaining to Childs' death pointed to intentional, not reckless, conduct on the part of Jones. The trial court did not err in refusing to instruct the jury on reckless second-degree murder.