State v. Adcock, 87-180
| Decision Date | 31 May 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 87-180,87-180 |
| Citation | 426 N.W.2d 639 |
| Parties | STATE of Iowa, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Rodney L. ADCOCK, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Iowa Court of Appeals |
Charles L. Harrington, Appellate Defender, and James R. Huff, Asst. Appellate Defender, for defendant-appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Atty. Gen., Julie Ann Halligan, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Stephen J. Petersen, Muscatine Co. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.
Heard by OXBERGER, C.J., and DONIELSON and SCHLEGEL, JJ.
The defendant, Rodney L. Adcock, was charged with attempted murder of Jim Phillips, and in the same information, was charged with willful injury of Jeff Phillips. The jury acquitted Adcock of the willful injury of Jeff Phillips, but found him guilty of willful injury of Jim Phillips, as a lesser-included offense of attempted murder. Adcock appeals that conviction, claiming that the court erred in submitting willful injury as a lesser-included offense of attempted murder. We reverse.
While the State concedes that willful injury is not an included offense of attempted murder, it claims that the error was harmless, and that the conviction should stand.
Attempted murder is defined by Iowa Code section 707.11 as follows:
A person commits a class "B" felony when, with the intent to cause the death of another person and not under circumstances which would justify the persons actions, the person does any act by which the person expects to set in motion a force or chain of events which will cause or result in the death of the other person.
It is not a defense to an indictment for attempt to commit murder that the acts proved could not have caused the death of any person, provided that the actor intended to cause the death of some person by so acting, and the actor's expectations were not unreasonable in the light of the facts known to the actor.
Iowa Code § 707.11 (1985).
Willful injury is defined as follows:
Any person who does an act which is not justified and which is intended to cause and does cause serious injury to another commits a class "C" felony.
Iowa Code § 708.4 (1985).
The defendant and the State are correct that willful injury is not an included offense of attempted murder. It is clear that the test for finding of an included offense is not satisfied with these offenses. The Iowa Supreme Court has stated:
In determining what offenses are lesser and included, we have developed a factual and legal test for the trial courts to apply. State v. Sangster, 299 N.W.2d 661, 663 (Iowa 1980). For an affirmative finding of an included offense, both tests must be satisfied. Id.
The legal or element test requires the lesser offense to be composed solely of some but not all of the elements of the greater offenses. Id. Thus, the lesser offense is necessarily included in the greater offense if the greater offense cannot be committed without also committing the lesser. State v. Redmon, 244 N.W.2d 792, 801 (Iowa 1976). Conversely, if the lesser offense contains an element that is not part of the greater offense, the lesser cannot be included in the greater. Sangster, 299 N.W.2d at 663.
The factual test requires the court to determine whether there is a sufficient factual basis in the record for submitting the included offense. Id.
State v. Lampman, 345 N.W.2d 142, 143 (Iowa 1984). In the case before us, it is obvious that willful injury does not satisfy the legal or element test for a lesser-included offense. The lesser offense is not necessarily included in the greater offense, because the greater offense (attempted murder) can be committed without also committing the lesser offense (willful injury). Attempted murder does not necessarily include serious injury, which is essential to willful injury. See Iowa Code § 708.4 (1985).
Since willful injury is not an included offense of attempted murder, Adcock was found...
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State v. Haskins, 96-0345
...injury is not a lesser-included offense of attempted murder. State v. Clarke, 475 N.W.2d 193, 194-95 (Iowa 1991); State v. Adcock, 426 N.W.2d 639, 640 (Iowa App.1988). From our examination of the verdicts (Count I), the jury did not find defendant guilty of "willful injury" as a lesser-incl......
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State v. Clarke, 90-1029
...willful injury has been held by our court of appeals not to constitute a lesser-included offense of attempted murder. State v. Adcock, 426 N.W.2d 639, 640 (Iowa App.1988). The distinguishing element is proof of serious injury, required for conviction of willful injury but not attempted murd......
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State v. Ondayog
...was not a lesser-included offense of first-degree kidnapping and therefore the conviction was a "nullity." See State v. Adcock, 426 N.W.2d 639, 640 (Iowa Ct.App.1988) (stating willful injury was not lesser-included offense of attempted murder and therefore conviction for willful injury was ......
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Frasier v. State, 3-1038 / 12-1957
...stating it is akin to a lack of subject matter jurisdiction. See State v. Trucke, 410 N.W.2d 242, 243 (Iowa 1987); State v. Adcock, 426 N.W.2d 639, 640 (Iowa Ct. App. 1988). Adcock was a direct appeal of a trial to a jury in which the defendant had been convicted of a charge which had been ......