State v. Guillemet
| Decision Date | 18 June 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. 80-361-C,80-361-C |
| Citation | 430 A.2d 1066 |
| Parties | STATE v. Raymond GUILLEMET. A. |
| Court | Rhode Island Supreme Court |
Raymond Guillemet (Guillemet) was tried before a Superior Court jury in Providence County on a one-count criminal information that charged him with having assaulted Lemuel A. Johnson (Johnson) with intent to commit murder and was found guilty of having assaulted Johnson with a dangerous weapon. After posttrial motions for a new trial and a reduction of postconviction bail had been denied, a ten-year prison sentence was imposed. The decisive issue in the appeal presently before us is whether the trial justice erred in refusing to charge the jury on the doctrine of self-defense. Guillemet claims error. We disagree.
Much of the evidence is uncontradicted. At trial time in March 1980, Johnson and his girl friend, Mary, had been living together for somewhere between four and five years in the first-floor premises of a three-tenement dwelling located on Harrison Street in Providence. For a substantial portion of this period, Johnson and Guillemet worked in Providence as school-bus drivers. After the duo had completed their morning deliveries, they would return to the Harrison Street residence where they would while away the hours chatting until it was time to pick up the students for their afternoon homeward trip.
Sometime in the fall of 1978, Johnson was arrested and pleaded guilty to a charge that alleged that he had been selling liquor at the Harrison Street address without benefit of a license. Guillemet told the jury that Johnson blamed him for telling the police about his entrepreneurial endeavor. Later, according to Guillemet, he met Johnson at a Pine Street residence in Providence and was told by Johnson, Johnson, on the other hand, denied that he had threatened Guillemet and insisted that prior to January 20, 1979, he and Guillemet had been the best of friends.
Mary, Johnson's girl friend, testified that at approximately 5:45 p. m. on January 20, 1979, she and her four children arrived in front of their Harrison Street home. At that time, Mary saw Guillemet standing on the front porch with a "pool stick" in his hand. However, when Mary took a second look she noticed that the pool stick was actually a sixteen-gauge, double-barrel shotgun. Mary and Guillemet exchanged words on the porch as she ushered the children into the house. Johnson, who at that time was in the house, heard the front-door commotion. Upon opening the front door, he observed Guillemet at the bottom step "arguing with the old lady." At this point, Johnson closed the door and went back into the house, but "somehow or another" Guillemet was behind him. When Johnson noticed the unexpected visitor and asked him to sit down and talk the matter over, Guillemet allegedly replied, "I'm going to kill you," and with that, the weapon discharged and Johnson was wounded in the left hip.
Guillemet, a former paratrooper and Vietnam veteran, acknowledged that when he and Mary met at the front porch, he was ready for any eventuality. At the time of the arrest, he was carrying a shotgun and ten rounds of ammunition. Two of the ten rounds were in the weapon. He explained his reliance on the shotgun because "I was afraid that Lemuel had a gun also * * * and I figured if he had a gun too, then it's best to be prepared." Guillemet also told the jury that when he saw Johnson at the front door, he told Johnson that he wanted to talk with him, but Johnson sabotaged any peace negotiations when he replied, "I'll fuck you up," as he headed toward the tenement's interior. Guillemet conceded that when he saw his fellow bus driver head toward the rear of the tenement, he followed him because "I thought he was going in the back to get a gun or to get something to hurt me. * * * When he went toward the back, I went in behind him." There is no question that Guillemet entered Johnson's tenement armed with a shotgun and shot Johnson as Johnson was heading toward the rear portion of the tenement.
The trial justice in refusing to charge on self-defense, said "he couldn't see" how he could grant Guillemet's request when it was obvious that Guillemet, while carrying a shotgun, had entered Johnson's abode and there fired the weapon. In essence, the trial justice's remarks bring into focus the duty to retreat by an individual who claims that he or she, in injuring another, was simply defending himself or herself.
Back before the turn of the century, this court in State v. Sherman, 16 R.I. 631, 633-34, 18 A. 1040, 1041 (1889), observed that wrongfully assaulted persons need not retreat but could stand fast and defend themselves, using so much force as was necessary for their protection. Again, in Martin v. Estrella, 107 R.I. 247, 253, 266 A.2d 41, 46-47 (1970), we said that a person who reasonably believes that he or she is in imminent danger of harm at the hands of another may defend...
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Mosby v. Devine
...she must retreat "when an open, safe avenue of escape is available and he [or she] is consciously aware of this fact." State v. Guillemet, 430 A.2d 1066, 1069 (R.I.1981); see also State v. Rieger, 763 A.2d 997, 1002-03 (R.I. 2001). A person may stand his ground and not retreat only if he em......
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State v. Linde, 2003-336-C.A.
...creating the necessity, and then justify the resulting homicide or injury as an act of necessity and self-defense." State v. Guillemet, 430 A.2d 1066, 1069 (R.I.1981). Even if we view the evidence in the case now before us in the light most favorable to Linde, see Guillemet, 430 A.2d at 106......
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State v. Walton, 91-417-C
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