Court Opinion

ID: 9549198
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:14:50.302993+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:19:58.951814
License: Public Domain

SHEPARD, Justice,
dissenting.
My view of the record indicates insufficient evidence to support the conviction of Carter and hence I dissent.
The majority correctly indicates that a person has a right to use deadly force to defend his spouse and child as well as himself from the infliction of great bodily injury provided that he be under a reasonable apprehension of imminent harm and reasonably believes that deadly force is necessary to protect against this harm. I.C. § 18-4009; People v. Pierson, 2 Idaho 76, 3 P. 688 (1884). I believe there is no question, even in the mind of the majority, that Carter initially had the right to use deadly force. Carter knew of the violent tendencies of the deceased when the deceased was intoxicated. The deceased, in an intoxicated condition, had come on the property of Carter *931and pointed a gun at Carter’s wife and infant son stating, “I am going to get you.” Carter, using an antique shotgun, fired at the deceased. The evidence indicates that Carter was aware that the weapon was as dangerous to the person using it as to the intended target.
It is the later actions of Carter upon which the majority focuses and its perception of whether those actions were reasonable under the then existing circumstances. The only direct evidence was that of Carter.
The majority correctly indicates that while one may defend himself against an aggressor, once the aggressor has retreated and the danger is abated, the privilege of self-defense expires. The majority suggests that the circumstances here fall into the above mentioned category. I disagree. The testimony of Carter is clear that whether or not the deceased had “retreated" into the pickup, the danger to Carter and his family had not abated. Carter testified clearly that both times he shot into the truck at the deceased he believed the deceased had a gun and was raising up to shoot him, Carter. I would believe that the question, therefore, was whether it was reasonable for Carter to use deadly force against a drunken aggressor who was pointing a gun at Carter while the aggressor was seated in a pickup. The majority never attempts to answer that question.
Rather, the majority seizes upon one bit of circumstantial evidence, i. e., that the gun the aggressor was initially holding and pointing at Carter’s wife and child was dropped “next to the sidewalk where I [a deputy sheriff] found it.” In my judgment, the record is totally devoid of any indication of how or when the gun was dropped at the position it was later found. I find no indication whatsoever that the gun was dropped next to the sidewalk before or during the time the deceased was “retreating” to the pickup. There is a total lack of any evidence indicating the existence or lack of existence of a second gun in the pickup. Most of all, there is a total lack of any evidence indicating that Carter knew that the deceased’s weapon had been dropped before or during the deceased’s entry into the pickup. In fact, the clear, unequivocal testimony of Carter is to the contrary, i. e., that while the deceased was in the pickup he was pointing a weapon at Carter.
This Court has stated: “Circumstantial evidence must be not only consistent and compatible with the guilt of an accused, but it must also be inconsistent with any reasonable theory of his innocence.” State v. Erwin, 98 Idaho 736, 572 P.2d 170 (1977), quoting State v. Wilson, 62 Idaho 282, 111 P.2d 868 (1941). I find nothing in the circumstantial evidence of a gun at a much later period in time being found outside the truck as being inconsistent with Carter’s theory of self-defense, i. e., that he believed that the danger had not abated because while the deceased was in the pickup truck he raised up with a gun in his hand and, therefore, Carter’s second and third shots were fired in self-defense.
I would reverse the conviction.