People v. Roberts, 95CA2122.
| Decision Date | 14 May 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 95CA2122.,95CA2122. |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Arlie D. ROBERTS, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Colorado Court of Appeals |
Gale A. Norton, Attorney General, Martha Phillips Allbright, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Richard A. Westfall, Solicitor General, Douglas J. Friednash, Special Assistant Attorney General, Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
David F. Vela, Colorado State Public Defender, Julie Iskenderian, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellant.
Opinion by Judge JONES.
In this case involving a fatal shooting, defendant, Arlie Roberts, appeals the judgment of conviction entered upon a jury verdict finding him guilty of criminally negligent homicide. We reverse and remand for a new trial.
In October 1994, the victim and defendant, who were friends and neighbors, went hunting together, and became intoxicated before returning to defendant's home in the early evening. The victim's wife joined the men and a fight between the victim and his wife soon ensued. The couple, who had a volatile relationship and frequently fought, argued over the victim's accusation that his wife was having an affair with defendant. The fight continued until the victim stormed out of the house and went home.
Shortly thereafter, the victim returned to defendant's house and reinitiated the fight with his wife in defendant's front yard until the wife entered defendant's house. Meanwhile, defendant, who had called 911, went outside to talk to the victim. Soon thereafter, the victim's wife heard a shot and returned outside to discover defendant with his hunting gun in his hand and her husband lying fatally wounded on the ground.
Defendant told the wife that he had shot the victim because he was trying to protect her and her children. Later, defendant told the police that he shot the victim in self-defense after the victim had pulled a knife on him.
Defendant was charged with reckless manslaughter, but was convicted of the lesser offense of criminally negligent homicide.
Defendant first contends that the trial court erred by failing to instruct the jury on self-defense as an affirmative defense to reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. We disagree with defendant's contention. However, because the jury should have been informed of the circumstances under which he was entitled to use force in defending himself or a third party, we reverse defendant's conviction for criminally negligent homicide.
At trial, the court denied defendant's request for an affirmative defense instruction and instead gave the following instructions as to self-defense:
In denying defendant's request, the trial court relied on the proposition, stated in People v. Fink, 194 Colo. 516, 518, 574 P.2d 81, 83 (1978), that: "[W]hen an element of the crime charged is that the defendant acted in a reckless or criminally negligent manner, and the trial court properly instructs the jury as to each element, no error results from the court's failure to give a self-defense instruction." This rule is based on the rationale that self-defense is inconsistent with the elements of recklessness and criminal negligence because it is inherent in the defense "that the person not only reasonably believed that his actions were justified, but also that he acted in a reasonable manner." People v. Fink, supra, 194 Colo. at 518, 574 P.2d at 83. See also People v. Marquantte, 923 P.2d 180 (Colo.App.1995)
. Accordingly, because self-defense presupposes that the defendant acted intentionally and knowingly, it can only be an affirmative defense to murder.
However, as the court in Fink noted, this does not mean that a defendant may not present evidence that he was acting in self-defense. Rather, "[s]uch evidence may be considered by the jury in its determination of whether the defendant was acting recklessly or in a criminally negligent manner." People v. Fink, supra, 194 Colo. at 519, 574 P.2d at 83.
Furthermore, when such evidence is presented, the jury should be informed of the right of a defendant to put himself in a position of reasonably defending himself. See Idrogo v. People, 818 P.2d 752 (Colo. 1991)
.
The Idrogo court specifically referenced § 18-1-704, C.R.S.1997, and stated:
[W]here the record contains any evidence tending to establish the defense of self-defense the defendant is entitled to have the jury properly instructed with respect to that defense.... [A] trial court must tailor instructions to the particular circumstances of a given case when the [pattern] instructions, taken as a whole, do not adequately apprise the jury of the law of self-defense from the standpoint of the defendant.
Idrogo v. People, supra, 818 P.2d at 754 (emphasis added).
Here, the jury should have been instructed that, in determining whether defendant committed the crime of reckless manslaughter or the lesser offense of criminally negligent homicide, it should consider whether defendant reasonably believed that it was necessary for him to use deadly physical force to defend himself or another person from the use or imminent use of unlawful physical force by the victim, and that he could use that degree of force which he reasonably believed to be necessary for that purpose.
Being so instructed, the jury, in determining whether defendant committed the crime of reckless manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide, could find that an accident occurred as a result of neither reckless nor negligent conduct on the part of defendant.
Here, the instructions given by the trial court were flawed in three respects. First, Instruction No. 13 informed the jurors that if they determined that defendant had acted recklessly or with criminal negligence, self-defense and defense...
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...evidence of self-defense as it relates to proof of the mental state of recklessness or negligence. The case that supports that is People v. Roberts. I only have the docket cite, 95CA2122, Court of Appeals from May of 1998 in which it specifically says that there should be an instruction inf......
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...present evidence that he or she acted in self-defense if the charges involve reckless or criminally negligent conduct. People v. Roberts, 983 P.2d 11, 14 (Colo.App.1998) (citing People v. Fink, 194 Colo. 516, 519, 574 P.2d 81, 83 (1978)). The trial court should instruct the jury that, in de......
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