Court Opinion

ID: 9724153
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:47:05.942543+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:56.851595
License: Public Domain

SHARPNACK, Chief Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The dispositive issue here is whether the actions of Warren created a substantial risk of bodily injury to Mr. Sadler.
The evidence in this case was sufficient to show that the manner in which Warren used the unloaded firearm created a dangerous situation. Mr. Sadler did not know the gun was unloaded and thus usable as a weapon only to pistol whip a person. The evidence raises the inference that when Warren spoke menacingly to Sadler, stuck a gun in his stomach, and pointed a gun at his head, Warren created a risk that Sadler would take action to repel the perceived threat. Such action could have resulted in bodily injury to Sadler.
The statute makes criminal the creation of a “substantial risk”. It does not require that the risk be realized by the occurrence of the event. If Warren had used a loaded firearm in the same manner, we probably would all agree that he created a substantial risk that Sadler could be shot and would affirm because the statute does not require that Sadler actually suffer injury in order for Warren to have acted with criminal recklessness. It may be less likely, but not so much so as to make it purely speculative, that Sadler would attack in our case than that he would be shot in the hypothetical case with the loaded gun. In fact, the evidence in this case shows that Sadler was, indeed, going to attack Warren with a bottle and was prevented from doing so by the intervention of Mrs. Sadler.
Given this evidence and the circumstances of the event, I do not believe we can consign the risk of such an attack and injury to Sadler to the category of purely speculative and exclude it from the category of substantial. It was for the trier of fact, in this instance the trial judge, to assess the substantiality of the risk, and we are not free to reassess it on appeal.
I would affirm.