Case v. People, 88SC6
| Citation | 774 P.2d 866 |
| Decision Date | 30 May 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 88SC6,88SC6 |
| Parties | Patricia Mae CASE, Petitioner, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Respondent. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Colorado |
Robert M. Moyers, Colorado Springs, for petitioner.
Duane Woodard, Atty. Gen., Charles B. Howe, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen., Richard H. Forman, Sol. Gen., Clement P. Engle, Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, for respondent.
We granted certiorari to review the court of appeals unpublished opinion in People v. Case, 85CA1676 (Colo.App. Nov. 12, 1987), which affirmed the trial court's refusal to submit a self-defense instruction to the jury. We affirm.
The petitioner, Patricia Mae Case, was charged with reckless manslaughter 1 following an altercation in which she stabbed and fatally wounded Gregory Carter. Although the sequence of events and the evidence surrounding the stabbing conflicted and were hotly disputed at trial, certain conclusions can be drawn from the record before us.
Case and Carter were involved in an intimate relationship. Carter, who lived with his mother, often stayed at Case's apartment. Case, who was approximately five feet tall and weighed 100 pounds, and Carter, who was six feet tall and weighed 180 pounds, had a history of violent arguments. On December 16, 1984, Case and Carter began to argue in Case's apartment. After arguing for a half hour, Carter left to make a telephone call from the building's laundry room. Carter had been gone for twenty minutes when Case decided to go check on him. Because several assaults had occurred recently in the building, Case put a paring knife in the waistband of her pants for self-protection. She spoke briefly to Carter in the laundry room, and then they returned to the apartment.
Case testified that she told Carter that he should go stay at his mother's house for a while. According to Case's testimony, Carter became angered and struck her in the face, knocking her down. 2 At this point, Case's trial testimony contradicts the statements she made to police the night of the stabbing. According to Officer Shelly Weber, who interviewed Case that night, Case said that after Carter knocked her down, "she got up from the floor and ... automatically stabbed" Carter. At trial, however, Case gave a different version of what happened after she was knocked down. Case stated that when she was knocked down, the paring knife, which was still in her waistband, began to poke her in the leg. Case testified that although she told Carter that she was going to take the knife out of her waistband to relieve the discomfort, Carter continued to proceed towards her. According to Case, Carter grabbed her in a "bear hug" and, as he squeezed and lifted her up, she reached into her waistband for the knife. Case stated that "somehow" she removed the knife from her pants. Then, according to Case's testimony, Carter "moved into the knife and that was when he got stabbed." Carter died from his wounds. 3
Case was charged with reckless manslaughter and was tried by a jury. The trial court instructed the jury on reckless manslaughter and the lesser included offense of criminally negligent homicide. 4 The defense tendered three different self-defense instructions and requested that the court submit one of them to the jury. 5 The court denied the request because, in its view, the tendered instructions were not supported by the evidence and not required under the rule announced in People v. Fink, 194 Colo. 516, 574 P.2d 81 (1978). Specifically, the trial court stated that Case
testified that the paring knife was sticking her in the side and it was uncomfortable, in other words, and that the decedent picked her up in what has been referred to as a bear hug, she took it out because it was sticking her while she was being held up in midair by him. Of course, she was just wanting to remove an uncomfortable object, she could have removed it and, of course, dropped it, but instead he wound up with two stab wounds, one of which was fatal through the heart.
So far as the affirmative defense of self defense is concerned, I do feel that the case of People versus Fink noted at 574 P.2d 81 resolves this matter. The Grand Jury indicted her on a charge of manslaughter, that is reckless manslaughter and the evidence I have heard certainly would support that charge if not perhaps a higher charge. But the Grand Jury had its say and that's what they arrived at. The entire testimony of the defendant ... [was] that she at no time had any intent to harm the defendant, let alone kill him.
....
She has not asserted that she during her testimony pulled this knife in order to protect herself and she had no intent to protect herself. She did not testify that she did it to protect herself.
She is saying, in effect, that if anything it was an accident, and so clearly under Fink I do not feel that the affirmative defense of self defense is proper, and should not be given.
I think my remarks in ruling at this time would also apply to Defendant's Tendered Instructions 2 and 3. Particularly when she is not claiming that she even intended to injure him. These deal with where she reasonably believes that he is about to use deadly physical force and she may do so and so. But I just don't think it's applicable under the testimony.
The jury found Case guilty of reckless manslaughter and she was sentenced to four years in the Department of Corrections.
On appeal, the court of appeals affirmed the conviction. It relied on People v. Fink in concluding that when a defendant is charged with a crime that has as an element either recklessness or criminal negligence, and the jury is instructed as to each and every element of the crime, a self-defense instruction need not be given. Because Case was tried for reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, and the instructions submitted to the jury contained each element of those charges, no self-defense instruction was held to be required.
In our view, the court of appeals properly construed People v. Fink, 194 Colo. 516, 574 P.2d 81 (1978). Since the charges submitted to the jury were reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the present case, the trial court was not required to submit a self-defense instruction to the jury even though there was some evidence of self-defense.
In People v. Fink, the respondent was charged with second-degree murder. People v. Fink, 194 Colo. at 517, 574 P.2d at 82. Conflicting testimony was presented at trial which raised the question of whether the respondent acted in self-defense. Id. At the close of the evidence, the trial court instructed the jury on second-degree murder and the lesser included offenses of reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Under the statute in effect at the time Fink was decided, criminally negligent homicide could be committed either by conduct amounting to criminal negligence or by intentionally causing the death of a person in a good faith but unreasonable belief that justification existed. § 18-3-105(1)(a) & (b), 8 C.R.S. (1973). The trial court submitted the respondent's self-defense instructions to the jury on the second-degree murder and "unreasonable belief of justification" criminally negligent homicide charges, but refused to do so on the reckless manslaughter and "negligent conduct" criminally negligent homicide charges. Id. The jury found the respondent guilty of reckless manslaughter, and an appeal was filed. Id.
The court of appeals reversed, holding that the trial court's refusal to submit self-defense instructions on all four charges was error. People v. Fink, 37 Colo.App. 512, 514, 552 P.2d 529, 530 (1976). We granted certiorari to review the court of appeals decision, concluded that the trial court acted properly, and reversed the court of appeals. People v. Fink, 194 Colo. at 519, 574 P.2d at 83. We stated that under the "negligent conduct" portion of the criminally negligent homicide statute, the mens rea required for a conviction was that the defendant failed to perceive an unjustified risk that a reasonable person would have perceived in the same situation. Id. at 518, 574 P.2d at 83. We held that self-defense was inconsistent with the criminally negligent homicide statute because the person asserting self-defense not only had to reasonably believe that his acts were justified, but also had to act in a reasonable manner. Id. By finding a person guilty of criminally negligent homicide because of "negligent conduct," we reasoned that the jury specifically found that the person did not act in a reasonable manner, i.e., he failed to perceive an unjustified risk, and thus impliedly rejected the self-defense theory. Id.
We applied the same rationale to the reckless manslaughter charge. We cited the Notes on the Use of CJI-Crim. 9:7 (1974), which stated: "The affirmative defense clause is deleted based upon the reasoning that if justification or exemption were present, the defendant would not be acting recklessly, therefore, if the jury is able to find that the defendant acted recklessly, [it had] already precluded any finding of affirmative defense." Id. We noted, however, that this did not mean that a defendant was barred from presenting evidence of self-defense at trial. We stated that evidence of self-defense must be allowed, and that the jury should consider the evidence when determining whether the defendant was acting in a reckless or a criminally negligent manner. Id.
In sum, we held that when an element of the crime charged is recklessness or criminal negligence, and the trial court properly instructs the jury as to each element of the crime charged, no error results from the court's failure to give a self-defense instruction. Because the trial court allowed Fink to present evidence of self-defense during trial and the jury was properly instructed, we reversed the court of appeals. Id.
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