Court Opinion

ID: 9796061
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:47:09.702999+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:48:51.624837
License: Public Domain

Leben, J.,
concurring: I join in Judge Green’s excellent opinion with one minor caveat: I do not believe the evidence necessarily leads to the conclusion that the victim, Donnie Irving, initially swung a tire iron at the defendant, Dana Deal. Such a conclusion necessarily relies on Deal’s self-serving statements. But we have several reasons to question whether Deal’s statements on that point are accurate.
Deal admitted that his emotions had gotten out of control over what Irving had supposedly done to Deal’s girlfriend. Deal came to Irving’s residence in a pickup truck that had a variety of tools in it, including tire-changing equipment. Yet under Deal’s stoiy, Irving had a tire iron in his living room, ready for batde, even though he didn’t know Deal was coming by. It seems much more likely that the tire tool came from Deal’s truck, and Deal referred to it as “my bar” in his later walk-dirough of the murder scene. After the attack, Deal took both the knife and the tire tool with him *895when he left Irving’s residence, and he disposed of both of them. Deal also left the scene with his vehicle lights off. Deal’s stories to police were inconsistent, and other parts seemed unlikely (such as Deal’s statement that he came to Irving’s home just to get Irving’s side' of the story). I do not want to leave the impression that we have necessarily accepted what Deal said occurred as an accurate account.
Even so, I agree fully with Judge Green’s legal conclusions. In looking at sufficiency of the evidence, we must look at the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict, and it convicted Deal of unintentional second-degree murder. In that light, sufficient evidence supports the verdict for the reasons stated by Judge Green. Similarly, even if Irving did not strike the first blow, there was no error in giving a legally accurate self-defense instruction, given the conflicting evidence presented to the jury.