Johnson v. State

• Decision Date: 24 May 1982
• Docket Number: No. 482S146,482S146
• Citation: 435 N.E.2d 242
• Parties: Larry G. JOHNSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee.
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

Page 242

435 N.E.2d 242

Larry G. JOHNSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee.

No. 482S146.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

May 24, 1982.

Harriette Bailey Conn, Public Defender of Ind., Robert H. Hendren, Deputy Public Defender, Indianapolis, for appellant.

Linley E. Pearson, Atty. Gen., Stephen J. Cuthbert, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellee.

ON PETITION TO TRANSFER

PIVARNIK, Justice.

This cause comes to us on a petition to transfer filed by the State of Indiana from the Third District Court of Appeals.

Defendant-appellant Larry G. Johnson was found guilty by a jury of battery, a Class C felony. Johnson was committed to the Department of Corrections for a period of five years by the trial court. The Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of the trial court, finding that the trial court erred in refusing to give instructions tendered by Johnson. Johnson v. State, (1981) Ind.App., 426 N.E.2d 91, rehearing denied, 428 N.E.2d 248 (Ind.App.). We conclude that the Court of Appeals erred on this issue and accordingly grant transfer and vacate its opinions. We will also dispose of other issues raised by appellant and not reached by the Court of Appeals.

The facts are not in dispute and appear to be as follows:

"On August 6, 1978, Johnson and Brian Jones were playing basketball at a playground in Fort Wayne, Indiana. While trying to slap the ball away from Johnson, Jones fouled Johnson. Jones immediately acknowledged that he had fouled Johnson, but Johnson accused Jones of committing the foul intentionally. The game resumed without further altercation. In the next game, Johnson and Jones collided on the court. As Jones attempted to stand, Johnson stepped over him. Jones asked Johnson if 'he did that on purpose.' Johnson replied, 'Nigger, if you want to start some shit, we can start it.' Johnson then drew a handgun from his pocket and shot Jones in the chest."

426 N.E.2d 91 at 92.

After shooting Jones, Johnson got in his automobile and drove off.

Johnson was charged with and convicted of battery, a Class C felony, which is committed when a person "knowingly or intentionally touches another person, in a rude, insolent or angry manner" and such touching "results in serious bodily injury to any other person or if it is committed by means of a deadly weapon." Ind.Code § 35-42-2-1 (Burns 1979). Johnson contends the trial court committed reversible error when it refused to give two of his tendered instructions, which he claimed were tendered for the purpose of instructing the jury upon the offense of criminal recklessness as a lesser included offense of battery. Criminal recklessness is defined in Ind.Code § 35-42-2-2(b) (Burns 1979) and provides as follows: "... (b) A person who recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally inflicts serious bodily injury on another person commits criminal recklessness, a class D felony."

The tendered instructions in question were as follows:

INSTRUCTION NO. 4

"If the jury is unable to find that the defendant knowingly or intentionally committed the acts he has been charged with but does find that the Defendant committed those acts recklessly, the Defendant may be found guilty of recklessly inflicting serious bodily injury on another person, a lesser included offense."

DEFENDANT'S FINAL INSTRUCTION NO. 5

"If the evidence shows beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant recklessly, knowingly or intentionally inflicted serious bodily injury on another person, the jury may find the defendant guilty of Criminal Recklessness, a Class D felony."

The trial court refused to give both of these instructions to the jury.

It was the holding of the Court of Appeals that instructions on criminal recklessness, as a lesser included offense of battery, should have been given to the jury since the evidence as to Johnson's state of mind during the commission of the offense was controverted. There was evidence that Johnson had smoked marijuana prior to playing the basketball game and the Court of Appeals reasoned that this may have evidenced an impairment of his mental state to a degree that rendered him incapable of formulating the requisite intent for the commission of a battery. Johnson had testified that he smoked marijuana immediately prior to the game and that he was high during the game in which he shot Jones. Jones, the victim, testified that Johnson's eyes were spaced and glazed over when the shooting occurred. In response to leading questions Jones acknowledged that Johnson did appear to be in a trance and that, in his opinion, Johnson was under the influence of drugs. In Johnson's testimony, however, Johnson gave a clear and detailed description of the events leading up to and including the shooting of Jones. He said he carried the .25 automatic pistol because he knew these basketball games got rough and he wanted to be able to protect himself. He said that he did not want to use the gun unless he had to, but if he got into a corner he wasn't going to let anybody "stomp" him. He stated that at the time of the incident when he and Jones confronted each other on the basketball court, he felt that many of the players, who he could not identify, were friends of Jones and felt that he had no friends there, since he was a stranger to the crowd. He then said he reached in his pocket and pulled out the pistol, which was loaded with a shell in the chamber, and shot Jones in the chest. He then looked at Jones and said, "Do you want some more?" and Jones answered, "No." The defendant then strode from the basketball court and left in his automobile.

It is well settled that the test for determining whether it was error to refuse instructions on lesser included offenses is embodied in a two-step analysis. It must be determined by looking at the language of the statutes and the indictment or information whether the lesser offense is necessarily included within the greater and also whether there has been evidence introduced at trial to which the included offense instruction was applicable. Humes v. State, (1981) Ind., 426 N.E.2d 379; Minton v. State, (1978) 269 Ind. 39, 378 N.E.2d 639; Lawrence v. State, (1978) 268 Ind. 330, 375 N.E.2d 208; Harris v. State, (1977) 266 Ind. 661, 366 N.E.2d 186; Roddy v. State, (1979) Ind.App., 394 N.E.2d 1098.

We provided in Harris, supra, and Lawrence, supra, that final instructions are to be given to the jury which conform to the issues and evidence before the jury. The trial court should instruct the jury on a lesser included offense only when it finds that there is evidence of probative value from which the jury could find properly that the defendant was guilty of such lesser included offense. Lawrence, supra; Hash v. State, (1972) 258 Ind. 692, 698, 284 N.E.2d 770-774, (DeBruler, J., dissenting). In Humes, supra, we considered the offense of recklessness as it contrasted with those charges contemplating intentional acts such as homicide, manslaughter and battery. In Humes we were dealing with an attempted murder charge which differs in the case before us since here we are dealing with an intentional battery. However, the analysis of recklessness is pertinent to the question before us. Therefore, our analysis in Humes is equally pertinent to the issue here as follows:

"Therefore, it is clear that the offense of recklessness in the present statutory scheme must include the essential element of reckless behavior and is a general intent offense. The comments provided by the Indiana Criminal Law Study Commission include the following explanation of the purpose of this statute:

'Reckless conduct is new to Indiana law. The inspiration for this section comes from the reckless endangerment sections of the Federal Criminal Code § 1613 (Study Draft 1970) and the Model Penal Code § 211.2 (Proposed Official Draft 1962). It is analogous in its provisions to involuntary manslaughter except that no homicide is required hereunder. * * *

'The crime defined by this section is new by this name and aims to encompass every reckless conduct which creates a substantial risk of bodily injury; or recklessly causes bodily injury or serious bodily injury to another.' West's Ann.Ind.Code § 35-42-2-2, page 373.

The legislature has also provided the following definitions for the terms involved as stated in Ind.Code § 35-41-2-2 (Burns 1979 Repl.):

'35-41-2-2 Culpability

(a) A person engages in conduct 'intentionally' if when he engages in the conduct, it is his conscious objective to do so.

(b) A person engages in conduct 'knowingly' if, when he engages in the conduct, he is aware of a high probability that he is doing so.

(c) A person engages in conduct 'recklessly' if he engages in the conduct in

plain, conscious, and unjustifiable disregard of harm that might result and the disregard involves a substantial deviation from acceptable standards of conduct.'

The comments provided after this section further illustrate the differences between reckless and intentional acts.

'Recklessly' requires conscious and unjustifiable disregard. * * * It is a form of intentional harm-doing in that it is volitional in a wrong direction. Recklessness, however, differs from intentionality in that the actor does not seek to attain the harm; rather he believes that the harm will not occur.' West's Ann.Ind.Code § 35-41-2-2, page 117.

A consideration of the above statutes and comments shows that our legislature clearly intended the offense of recklessness to be a general intent crime wherein a specific mens rea is not a crucial element. The terms 'knowingly' and 'intentionally' are not misplaced in this statute defining a general attempt crime, since reckless behavior does involve some intentional elements. We defined the concept of reckless behavior in the following manner when we dealt with the crime of reckless homicide.

'But while the intention to do or omit the act resulting in injury to another is a necessary ingredient of reckless homicide, willfulness in the sense of a design, purpose,...