State v. Amschler

• Decision Date: 02 June 2015
• Docket Number: ED 101585
• Citation: 477 S.W.3d 10
• Parties: State of Missouri, Respondent, v. Aaron Amschler, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

477 S.W.3d 10

State of Missouri, Respondent,

v.Aaron Amschler, Appellant.

ED 101585

Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, DIVISION THREE .

Filed: June 2, 2015

Motion for Rehearing and/or Transfer to Supreme Court Denied July 14, 2015

Application for Transfer Denied September 22, 2015

Ellen H. Flottman, 1000 West Nifong Bdg. 7, Suite 100, Columbia, MO 65203, for appellant.

Chris Koster, Richard A. Starnes, PO Box 899, Jefferson City, MO 65102, for respondent.

Gary M. Gaertner, Jr., Judge

Introduction

Aaron Amschler (Defendant) appeals the judgment entered upon his conviction by jury of one count of unlawful use of a weapon for discharging a firearm while intoxicated in violation of Section 571.030.1(5).¹ He argues the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury regarding self-defense. Because we agree that the evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to Defendant, warranted submission of a self-defense instruction, we reverse.

Background

On the morning of December 11, 2012, Defendant was at his father's house. His father, Gary Amschler (Gary), received a phone call that morning from Laura Adams (Adams), who said that Clinton Chandler (Chandler) was on his way over to Gary's house. Adams told Gary that Chandler was enraged and had said Defendant "better not be there" and that he would beat up Defendant.

Gary testified he was concerned about this because he knew Chandler "was a dangerous guy." He explained that two months earlier, Defendant was standing at the back of a truck and told Chandler not to back up, but Chandler drove backwards and ran over Defendant's leg with the truck. Later that night, Chandler was at Gary's house, and Defendant asked Chandler why he ran over his leg. Chandler responded by punching Defendant in the face, which knocked Defendant to the ground.

So, when Chandler and his wife Barbara Chandler (Barbara) arrived at Gary's house on December 11, 2012, Gary met them outside. He stopped Chandler in the driveway, told him not to come any further, and ordered him to leave. Chandler refused to leave and demanded payment from Gary for landscaping work Chandler had done for Gary, Barbara testified Gary and Chandler were saying "horrible things" to each other, and that Chandler was cussing and threatening to hurt Gary. Chandler said "if I catch you out by yourself, old man, you're going to pay me one way or another" and said he was going to "kick [his] ass." Gary testified that Chandler spent 45 minutes standing in the road bordering Gary's property, and he also made threats toward his family including "I'll kill you. I'll kill your kids. I'll burn both your houses." Then Chandler got into his car and drove halfway up Gary's long driveway. Chandler and Gary continued arguing. Gary testified that Chandler was speaking "over the roof [of his truck] so I didn't know what he had." Chandler said he might have also clenched his fist and waved it at Gary.²

At some point during this encounter, Gary went into his house and woke up Defendant, who had been sleeping. Gary told Defendant that Chandler was making threats and that Defendant should get his gun. Defendant emerged briefly from the house and then went back inside. Chandler testified he got into his car and started to back out of the driveway before stopping and continuing to argue with Gary. In the meantime, Defendant came back out of the house with a rifle in his hand. Gary testified that "[Chandler] got out and stepped around the car and started running at [Defendant] at about two hundred and fifty feet and then he stopped and said ‘Come over here and fight. I'll kill you. I'll kill your dad. I'll kill your brother. I'll burn your truck.’ "

While the yelling continued, Defendant fired a shot from the rifle into the ground. Defendant testified that he was afraid of Chandler because of what Chandler had done to him previously, and he also knew Chandler did some work as a tree-trimmer and would likely have a gas jug in the back of his truck for refueling chainsaws. Defendant said he was scared of Chandler, knew him to be violent, and did not want to take a chance of letting Chandler burn down Gary's house.

The evidence at trial varied as to how far away Chandler was from Defendant when Defendant fired the gun, ranging from 75 to 250 feet, but Barbara testified that Chandler was "definitely on the Amschler property when the gun was fired." Defendant did not see that Chandler had a weapon at any time. Both Defendant and Barbara testified that after Defendant fired the gun, Chandler did not leave but continued yelling at Gary and Defendant and making threats. Eventually, Chandler and Barbara left, and both Chandler and Defendant called the police.

When police arrived, they detected an odor of alcohol on Defendant's breath. Defendant admitted firing the gun. He told police he was afraid of Chandler and he fired the gun to defend himself. When Defendant was in custody, he provided a breath sample to police showing a blood alcohol content of .107.

The State charged Defendant as a prior offender with unlawful use of a weapon for discharging a firearm while intoxicated. At the close of the evidence, Defendant offered a self-defense jury instruction, which the trial court rejected. The trial court found that no substantial evidence supported the giving of that instruction because the evidence did not support a reasonable belief of Chandler's use or imminent use of unlawful force. During their deliberation, the jury asked the trial court whether they needed to consider self-defense, and the trial court told them to be guided by the court's instructions. The jury found Defendant guilty. The trial court sentenced Defendant to three years' imprisonment, but suspended execution of that sentence and placed him on five years' probation. This appeal follows.

Discussion

In his first point, Defendant argues that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury regarding self-defense because there was substantial evidence from which the jury could have found that he fired the gun under a reasonable belief of imminent danger. We agree.³

As a threshold matter, the State argues Defendant failed to preserve this point for review because the self-defense instruction Defendant proffered at trial misstated the law. Failure to submit a corrective instruction may leave a claim of instructional error unpreserved. See State v. Derenzy, 89 S.W.3d 472, 475 (Mo. banc 2002). However, regarding self-defense, where substantial evidence in the record shows that a party has injected the issue of self-defense into the case, the trial court is required to instruct the jury on self-defense, "even if such an instruction was offered but not in proper form." State v. Westfall, 75 S.W.3d 278, 281 n. 9 (Mo. banc 2002). Thus, even assuming arguendo Defendant's proffered instruction misstated the law, it was the trial court's and not Defendant's duty to correct any errors. See id . Any failure of Defendant to do so did not defeat preservation of this point for appeal.

Turning to the merits of Defendant's claim, we review a trial court's refusal of a requested jury instruction de novo . State v. Jackson, 433 S.W.3d 390, 395 (Mo. banc 2014). The trial court is required to instruct the jury regarding self-defense if there is any substantial evidence putting self-defense in issue. Westfall 75 S.W.3d at 280–81. In determining whether substantial evidence existed to require such an instruction, we view the evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to Defendant and "the theory propounded by [D]efendant." Id. at 280. While the substantial evidence required could have come from Defendant's testimony alone, the trial court's obligation to instruct the jury remained even if the substantial evidence supporting the instruction was inconsistent with Defendant's testimony. See id. Where a trial court is required to instruct the jury regarding self-defense, failure to do so constitutes reversible error. State v. Weems, 840 S.W.2d 222, 226 (Mo. banc 1992).

A defendant may be justified in using physical force when "he or she reasonably believes such force to be necessary to defend himself or herself or a third person from what he or she reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful force" by another person. Section 563.031.1, RSMo. (Supp. 2013). The use of deadly force requires in addition that the defendant "reasonably believe[ ] that such deadly force is necessary to protect himself, or herself ... or another against death, serious physical injury, or any forcible felony." Section 563.031.2(1), RSMo. (Supp. 2013). A reasonable belief is one "based on ... grounds that could lead a reasonable person in the same situation to the same belief. This depends upon how the facts reasonably appeared[,] not ... upon whether the belief turned out to be true or false." State v. Smith, ––– S.W.3d ––––, No. SC94313, 2015 WL 1094826 (Mo. banc Mar. 10, 2015) (quoting MAI–CR ed 306.06A[6] ).

The question here is whether there was substantial evidence from which the jury could have found that Defendant had a reasonable belief deadly force⁴ was necessary to defend himself from what he reasonably believed to be an imminent use of unlawful force by Chandler. Section 563.031.1. The reasonableness of Defendant's belief itself was for the jury to determine. State v. Chambers, 671 S.W.2d 781, 783 (Mo. banc 1984).

In rejecting Defendant's proposed self-defense instruction, the trial court noted that Chandler was a considerable distance away from Defendant, did not possess a weapon, and made no attempt to strike Defendant, and therefore concluded there was no evidence that any threat of force from Chandler was imminent. However, viewing the whole record in the light most favorable to Defendant, we conclude there was substantial evidence warranting submission of the issue to the jury.

First, Chandler acknowledged that he was there to "force them to do the right thing," and Barbara...