U.S. v. Bryant, 88-1836

• Decision Date: 27 December 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-1836,88-1836
• Citation: 892 F.2d 1466
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. MacArthur Martin BRYANT, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1466

892 F.2d 1466

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. MacArthur Martin BRYANT, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 88-1836.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

Dec. 27, 1989.

Peter Schoenburg, Asst. Federal Public Defender, Albuquerque, N.M., for defendant-appellant.

Paula G. Burnett, Asst. U.S. Atty., Albuquerque, N.M. (William L. Lutz, U.S. Atty., Albuquerque, N.M., was also on the brief) for plaintiff-appellee.

Before HOLLOWAY, Chief Judge, and McKAY and EBEL, Circuit Judges.

HOLLOWAY, Chief Judge.

Defendant-Appellant Bryant appeals his conviction for involuntary manslaughter. 18 U.S.C. § 1112. Bryant argues that (1) the district court abused its discretion by failing to define adequately for the jury the term "wanton or reckless disregard for human life" as an element of involuntary manslaughter, and (2) the court violated his rights under the Double Jeopardy Clause when it based its sentence of Bryant on a view of the evidence that was contrary to that found by the jury. We affirm.

I.

The killing for which Bryant was prosecuted took place during the summer of 1987 on the Navajo reservation in the Chuska Mountains near Sand Springs, New Mexico. On the night of July 25, 1987, Oscar Wood and his brother Ervin Wood--distant clan relations of Bryant--went to the home of Roy Wood, the defendant's half-brother. Oscar and Ervin Wood had a flat tire and, according to the testimony of Oscar, the Wood brothers hoped to borrow an air pump from Roy Wood. At Roy's home, Oscar, Ervin and Roy quarrelled and in an ensuing fight, Roy was badly beaten. After making his way to Bryant's home shortly thereafter, Roy told his half-brother what had happened. The defendant then went with his wife in his truck to seek help for Roy at a nearby gathering.

En route, on a narrow mountain road, Bryant came upon the Wood brothers, driving their car with its flat tire. Both Bryant and the Woods stopped. Bryant left his truck, holding a damaged rifle ¹ that he ordinarily used to patrol the vicinity for a bear which threatened local livestock. The defendant stood before the Woods' driver's side window with the purpose, according to his testimony, of determining what had caused the fight that had occurred earlier that evening. III at 264. At this point, there is a conflict as to what transpired. Oscar testified that after a short exchange of words, Bryant simply discharged his rifle at Ervin. According to Bryant, however, Ervin grabbed the rifle after the exchange of words and in the struggle, the rifle--with its damaged firing mechanism--accidentally discharged. It is undisputed that the bullet from the rifle mortally wounded Ervin and then struck Oscar in the shoulder.

II.

The resulting indictment charged the defendant with two criminal counts: (1) the second degree murder of Ervin Wood in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1153 (offenses committed within Indian country) and 18 U.S.C. § 1111(a) and (b) (murder) and; (2) the assault of Oscar Wood with a dangerous weapon in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 113(c).

After hearing the testimony of twenty-two witnesses, including experts on ballistics and pathology, the jury acquitted the defendant of both the second degree murder of Ervin and the assault with a dangerous weapon on Oscar, and convicted Bryant of the lesser included offense of the involuntary manslaughter of Ervin, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1112. The trial judge sentenced Bryant to three years' incarceration, a $50 special assessment, and ordered $1,988 in restitution to be paid by the defendant for Ervin's widow. The three-year prison term is the maximum incarceration allowable under 18 U.S.C. § 1112(b), although a possible fine of up to $1,000 was not imposed.

Bryant appeals, seeking reversal of his conviction and remand for a new trial, or alternatively vacation of his sentence and imposition of a new sentence.

III.

A. The jury instructions

The defendant argues that the district court abused its discretion in its instructions regarding the lesser included offense of involuntary manslaughter. Although the charge recited the five elements of the involuntary manslaughter offense along with the definition of the crime set forth in the United States Code, Bryant contends that the court committed reversible error by failing to define "wanton or reckless disregard for human life" and by failing to give his proposed instructions J and K, which purported to explain the circumstances the jury could consider in deciding whether Bryant had acted with "wanton and reckless disregard for human life." We cannot agree that the court's instructions pertaining to involuntary manslaughter constituted an abuse of discretion or that the instructions were in error.

As we explained in United States v. Pack, 773 F.2d 261 (10th Cir.1985): "Although a criminal defendant is entitled to an instruction regarding his theory of the case, a trial judge is given substantial latitude and discretion in tailoring and formulating the instructions so long as they are correct statements of law and fairly and adequately cover the issues presented." Id. at 267; accord, United States v. Pinto, 838 F.2d 426, 435-36 (10th Cir.1988); United States v. Scafe, 822 F.2d 928, 932 (10th Cir.1987); United States v. Lofton, 776 F.2d 918, 919-20 (10th Cir.1985). A defendant is not entitled to an instruction which lacks a reasonable legal and factual basis. See Scafe, 822 F.2d at 932; United States v. Troutman, 814 F.2d 1428, 1451 (10th Cir.1987). Nor is a defendant entitled to any specific wording of instructions. United States v. Hoffner, 777 F.2d 1423, 1426 (10th Cir.1985); United States v. Lisko, 747 F.2d 1234, at 1238 (8th Cir.1984). Our inquiry here, therefore, is whether the failure to define the phrase "wanton and reckless disregard for human life" and the rejection of proposed instructions J and K, left untreated a theory of defense finding support in the evidence and the law. Scafe, 822 F.2d at 932; Lofton, 776 F.2d at 919-20. See also United States v. Hunt, 794 F.2d 1095, 1097 (5th Cir.1986) ("an abuse of discretion occurs only when the failure to give a requested instruction serves to prevent the jury from considering the defendant's defense").

Jury Instructions 14A-14C as given show that the court did not err. The jury was clearly instructed that if the prosecution failed to establish guilt of second degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt, the jurors should consider the defendant's guilt or innocence of involuntary manslaughter. Jury Instructions 14A, 14B. Moreover, the instructions set forth both the statutory definition of involuntary manslaughter, Jury Instruction 14B, and the five elements that the government must prove to convict a defendant of the offense, Jury Instruction 14C. Although the jury requested a definition of "wanton and reckless disregard for human life" during its deliberations, it has not been demonstrated to our satisfaction that the court's decision to have the jury apply the common understanding of the "wanton and reckless" element left the jury with insufficient guidance. These terms are commonplace. Moreover the charge was sufficient to encompass the legally and factually arguable defense theories, i.e., that the killing of Ervin Wood was not second degree murder and instead was no crime at all or merely involuntary manslaughter. ²

Defendant's case is distinguishable from cases such as United States v. Lofton, 776 F.2d 918 (10th Cir.1985), ³ where a defendant's conviction for second degree murder was reversed because the trial court had failed to instruct correctly on the defendant's heat of passion defense. Lofton at 919-22. There the defendant relied solely on the heat of passion defense, id. at 921, and presented the theory adequately at trial. Id. at 919. The factual finding on the specific question whether the defendant had killed her victim in the heat of passion, given the facts of her case and her reliance on the mens rea defense, should have been substantially determinative of whether she would be convicted of murder or of involuntary manslaughter. Id. at 920. Yet the trial court in the instructions failed to state clearly that heat of passion was a defense to murder and failed to distinguish the mental state consistent with second degree murder from that consistent with involuntary manslaughter. Id. at 921-22.

Here the court's instructions clearly delineate the mens rea elements at issue. Jury Instructions 10 (providing statutory definition of murder including the element of malice aforethought), 11 (stating the four elements of the second degree murder offense including malice aforethought), and 12 (specifically defining malice aforethought in two paragraphs as willful intent to take a human life) constitute three interrelated statements that malice aforethought--the willful intent to kill someone--must be established in order to convict for murder. Instruction 14B (statutory definition of involuntary manslaughter) specifically states that involuntary manslaughter is a killing "without malice" and Instruction 14C states that a necessary element of involuntary manslaughter is acting with wanton or reckless disregard for human life. Id. These instructions are adequate for the purpose of permitting the jury to consider whether Bryant had the requisite mental state for murder, involuntary manslaughter, or no crime at all.

Regarding the court's decision to reject proposed Instructions J ⁴ and K, ⁵ we note that these instructions were ostensibly proposed in order to amplify the court's explanation of those factors the jury should consider in evaluating the defendant's guilt or innocence of involuntary manslaughter with references to the trial testimony. To the extent that proposed instructions J and K relate to involuntary manslaughter, we believe that the district court was within its discretion to reject these proposed "amplifications," see Troutman, 814 F.2d at 1451, since the involuntary manslaughter...