Nelson v. State, 4D02-1307.
| Decision Date | 03 September 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 4D02-1307.,4D02-1307. |
| Citation | 853 So.2d 563 |
| Parties | Roger NELSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Carey Haughwout, Public Defender, and Tatjana Ostapoff, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Daniel P. Hyndman, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
Appellant, Roger Nelson, was charged and convicted of manslaughter with a deadly weapon in the shooting death of innocent bystander, Derrick Haughton. Appellant's request for a jury instruction on self-defense was denied on the grounds that such an instruction could not be used on a transferred intent crime. On appeal, appellant claims that by denying his request for a self-defense instruction yet giving the jury a transferred intent instruction, the trial court denied him his ability to present a defense. We agree.
In this case, appellant pulled up to a group of about twenty to thirty men playing dice, and got out of his car and approached one of the men, Herbert Amose. Appellant tried to talk to Amose, who immediately began cursing at appellant and ran after him. Amose threatened to hurt appellant and punched him in the jaw. He then chased appellant with a brick in his hand, threatening to seriously harm appellant. Appellant jumped into his car, but was unable to pull out. Amose stood in front of the car near the windshield with brick in hand and told appellant to get out and fight him. Amose, a rather large man, threatened to hit appellant with the brick and taunted appellant to shoot him. Appellant exited his car with a gun and began shooting in Amose's direction. As a result, Haughton was shot and killed.
The trial court instructed the jury on the justifiable use of deadly force:
Pursuant to the state's request, the jury was also given an instruction defining transferred intent:
If a person aims or shoots a firearm at another person, but instead misses and hits a different person, the law transfers the intent to shoot from the person aimed at to the person who was actually hit.
The court explained that in order to find appellant guilty of manslaughter the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Derrick Haughton was dead and that appellant intentionally caused his death or that his death was caused by culpable negligence. The court also instructed that appellant could not be found guilty of manslaughter if the killing was justifiable or excusable.
We agree...
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State v. Bellinger
...liable for C's injury or death.”). The principle, often couched in terms of transferred intent, is well established. Nelson v. State, 853 So.2d 563, 565 (Fla.Dist.App.2003) (conviction reversed for failing to give jury instruction on transferred self-defense); People v. Blue, 343 Ill.App.3d......
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State v. Betts
...was not guiltless, but might be adjudged guilty of involuntary manslaughter in causing the death of Copeland"); Nelson v. State , 853 So. 2d 563, 565 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2003) ("[A]ppellant should have been entitled to transfer his theory of self-defense to defend against the transferred i......
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David v. State, No. 3D18-1143
...we hold that the error here denied David the "ability to transfer his defense to the unintended" victims, Nelson v. State, 853 So. 2d 563, 565 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003), and, upon this rare record, we cannot be confident he "receive[d] a fair trial consistent with the Due Process Clause of the Fo......
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Hill v. Commonwealth, Record No. 0186-09-1 (Va. App. 6/1/2010)
...of self-defense, then the unintended killing of a bystander, . . . is also excusable or justifiable"); accord Nelson v. State, 853 So.2d 563, 565 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2003). See also People v. Conley, 713 N.E.2d 131, 136 (Ill. App. Ct. 1999) (noting, the "defendant's intent to shoot his ass......