Cassels v. People

• Citation: 92 P.3d 951
• Decision Date: 28 June 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03SC229.,03SC229.
• Parties: Bradley CASSELS, Petitioner, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Respondent.
• Court: Supreme Court of Colorado

92 P.3d 951

Bradley CASSELS, Petitioner, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Respondent.

No. 03SC229.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

June 28, 2004.

David S. Kaplan, Colorado State Public Defender, Alan Kratz, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, Colorado, Attorneys for Petitioner.

Ken Salazar, Attorney General, Elizabeth Rohrbough, Assistant Attorney General, Denver, Colorado, Attorneys for Respondent. Justice HOBBS delivered the opinion of the Court.

We granted certiorari in this case to review the court of appeals decision in People v. Cassels, No. 01CA0175, 2003 WL 192140 (Colo.App. Jan.23, 2003).¹ The court of appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment of conviction entered upon a jury verdict finding defendant Bradley Cassels guilty of second-degree murder for the death of his roommate, Greg Morris. We hold that the trial court should have instructed the jury on provocation and the doctrine of no-retreat because there was sufficient evidence in the case to support each instruction. We hold that the errors require reversal of Cassels' conviction because they deprived the defendant of the possibility of an acquittal, or alternatively, a shorter sentence.

I.

According to his testimony at trial, from which the following account is taken, Cassels was unemployed and struggling to pay his bills in October, 1999. Morris, a former co-worker, agreed to let Cassels move into his apartment. The apartment was small, with only one bedroom and one entrance. Cassels and Morris agreed to split the rent and other expenses. Cassels slept in the only bedroom because Morris preferred sleeping on the couch in the living room.

By January, 2000, Cassels and Morris' relationship had deteriorated and become tense and volatile. Morris had started insulting Cassels, calling him a "mooch" and telling him he was not a very good person. The men agreed that Cassels would move out by the end of the month.

On January 11, 2000, Cassels was still living with Morris. He came home from work and went into his bedroom, where he drank two quarts of beer, played video games, and watched television. He subsequently went into the bathroom to take a shower. Morris returned home while Cassels was in the shower. Morris "stormed" into the bathroom like a "wild man," pulled open the shower curtain, yelled something unintelligible to Cassels, and then walked out.

Cassels got out of the shower and wrapped himself in a towel. He walked into the living room and told Morris that the bathroom was available. Morris replied that he did not want to use the "fucking bathroom." Morris began yelling at Cassels, calling him a "no good son of a bitch" and a "low-life," among other things. Morris also told Cassels that the two of them were going to fight. Morris threatened to "beat the hell out of" Cassels and "put him in the hospital." Cassels told Morris that he did not want to fight and returned to his bedroom to put on some clothes.

Before Cassels had time to get dressed, Morris burst through the bedroom door. Morris continued to threaten Cassels and started pushing and shoving him. Still undressed, Cassels made his way back into the living room. Morris followed Cassels again and continued to push him and threaten him.

As the incident continued, Morris positioned himself in front of the only exit from the apartment. He stood next to an iron bar that he previously told Cassels would make a good weapon. Cassels had never seen Morris in such a rage and became afraid that Morris was going to assault him. Cassels went to his bedroom and retrieved a loaded gun with the intent to frighten Morris and cause him to calm down and stop threatening and pushing him. When Cassels exited his room with the gun, he "freaked out" and "lost it." He shot Morris nine times, emptying the gun.

Cassels testified he did not remember shooting Morris. When Cassels saw Morris lying on the floor of the living room, he called 911 and told the dispatcher that he shot his roommate. Morris did not survive the gunfire.

The prosecution charged Cassels with one count of first-degree murder pursuant to section 18-3-102, 6 C.R.S. (2000), one count of second-degree murder pursuant to section 18-3-103, 6 C.R.S. (2000), and two counts of crime of violence pursuant to section 16-11-309, 6 C.R.S. (2000).²

At trial, the court instructed the jury to consider whether Cassels acted in self-defense. But, the trial court refused the defense's request to instruct the jury on provocation through a special interrogatory.³ The trial court ruled that "the shooting has to result as from the sudden heat of passion that Mr. Cassels was so overcome by this serious and highly provoking act ... that he responded without time to think. And that's not what happened." The trial court based its ruling on the fact that Cassels retrieved his gun for a particular purpose—to scare Morris—which showed he had time think about his actions.

The trial court also refused to deliver a defense-requested no-retreat instruction.⁴ The trial court reasoned that the instruction was not required because it found that: (1) the standard self-defense instruction was sufficient; (2) an instruction on retreat is only warranted when the defendant is the initial aggressor; and (3) the instruction as tendered was inappropriate because it contained language about the defendant being where he had a right to be, which was not at issue in the case.

The jury found Cassels guilty of second-degree murder. The trial court entered judgment of conviction on the jury verdict and sentenced Cassels to forty years in the Department of Corrections. On appeal, Cassels challenged the trial court's refusal to instruct the jury on the provocation mitigator and the doctrine of no-retreat. Finding no error, the court of appeals upheld Cassels' conviction and sentence.

II.

We hold that the trial court should have instructed the jury on provocation and the doctrine of no-retreat because there was sufficient evidence in the case to support each instruction. We hold that the errors require reversal of Cassels' conviction because they deprived the defendant of the possibility of an acquittal, or alternatively, a shorter sentence.

A. Applicable Law

We first address the standard of review applicable to requested defense jury instructions; we then turn to the law of provocation and the doctrine of no-retreat.

1. Defense-Requested Jury Instructions

The trial court has a duty to correctly instruct the jury on all matters of law for which there is sufficient evidence to support giving instructions. People v. Garcia, 28 P.3d 340, 343 (Colo.2001). When considering whether a defendant is entitled to requested instructions, we consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the defendant. Mata-Medina v. People, 71 P.3d 973, 979 (Colo.2003). A defendant is entitled to instructions on a certain statutory grade of criminal homicide as long as there is any supporting evidence, regardless of how incredible, unreasonable, improbable, or slight it may be. Id. (quoting Read v. People, 119 Colo. 506, 509, 205 P.2d 233, 235 (1949) and Crawford v. People, 12 Colo. 290, 293, 20 P. 769, 770 (1889)). A defendant is entitled to an instruction on a particular affirmative defense when he or she raises some credible evidence to support it. § 18-1-407(1), 6 C.R.S. (2003); Gorman v. People, 19 P.3d 662, 668 (Colo.2000).

2. Provocation and Second-Degree Murder

Prior to 1996, our criminal code contained a separate offense named heat of passion manslaughter. Ch. 295, sec. 13, § 18-3-104, 1996 Colo. Sess. Laws 1840, 1844-45. The manslaughter statute provided that:

(1) A person commits the crime of manslaughter if:

...

(c) Such person knowingly causes the death of another person under circumstances where the act causing the death was performed upon a sudden heat of passion, caused by a serious and highly provoking act of the intended victim, affecting the person who performs the killing sufficiently to excite an irresistible passion in a reasonable person; but, if between the provocation and the killing there is an interval sufficient for the voice of reason and humanity to be heard, the killing is murder.

§ 18-3-104, 8B C.R.S. (1995 Supp.); Ch. 295, sec. 13, § 18-3-104, 1996 Colo. Sess. Laws 1840, 1844-45. Heat of passion manslaughter was classified as a class 3 felony. § 18-3-104; Ch. 295, sec. 13, § 18-3-104, 1996 Colo. Sess. Laws 1840, 1844-45.

The General Assembly amended our criminal code in 1996 and eliminated the separate offense of heat of passion manslaughter. A homicide committed in the heat of passion, or upon provocation, is now treated as a less culpable form of second-degree murder.⁵ Thus, the issue of provocation is treated as a factor in mitigation of second-degree murder affecting the applicable felony classification, and is located within section 18-3-103. § 18-3-103(3)(b), 6 C.R.S. (2003); People v. Ramirez, 56 P.3d 89, 94 (Colo.2002).

The current second-degree murder statute provides that:

(1) A person commits the crime of murder in the second degree if the person knowingly causes the death of a person.

...

(3)(a) Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (b) of this subsection (3), murder in the second degree is a class 2 felony.

(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (a) of this subsection (3), murder in the second degree is a class 3 felony where the act causing the death was performed upon a sudden heat of passion, caused by a serious and highly provoking act of the intended victim, affecting the defendant sufficiently to excite an irresistible passion in a reasonable person; but, if between the provocation and the killing there is an interval sufficient for the voice of reason and humanity to be heard, the killing is a class 2 felony.

§ 18-3-103. If found by the jury, the mitigator reduces a conviction for second-degree murder from a class 2 to a class 3 felony. § 18-3-103(3)(b). This reduces the presumptive sentencing range...