State v. Berriel

2011 UT App 317, 262 P.3d 1212, 692 Utah Adv. Rep. 68, 2011 Utah App. LEXIS 321, 2011 WL 4089935
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedSeptember 15, 2011
Docket20090665-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 2011 UT App 317 (State v. Berriel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Berriel, 2011 UT App 317, 262 P.3d 1212, 692 Utah Adv. Rep. 68, 2011 Utah App. LEXIS 321, 2011 WL 4089935 (Utah Ct. App. 2011).

Opinions

MEMORANDUM DECISION

ROTH, Judge:

T1 Darren Berriel appeals his convictions for aggravated assault, a third degree felony, see Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-108(1)(b), (8) (2008) (current version at id. § 76-5-103(1)(a), (2)(a) (Supp.2011)), and possession of a deadly weapon with intent to assault, a class A misdemeanor, see id. § 76-10-507 (2008). First, he argues that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on justification for the use of force in defense of another as a defense to the aggravated assault charge. Second, he contends that the trial court erroneously denied his motion to merge the weapon possession conviction with the aggravated assault conviction. We affirm the trial court's decision to deny the requested instruction but vacate the convietion for possession of a deadly weapon with intent to assault.

12 Berrie! was charged with stabbing the victim, Luis, with a knife and with possession of the knife with the intent to commit the assault. Approximately three weeks before the incident from which these charges arose, Berriel's friend, Rachel, confided in him that Luis, her boyfriend, was physically abusing her.1 When Rachel called Berriel on September 28, 2008, for help, she was screaming and erying that Luis was beating her. Ber-[1214]*1214riel, who had been driving a group of friends to the movies, immediately drove to Rachel and Luis's house. On the way, he called one of Rachel's friends to have her remove Rachel from the scene. When Berriel arrived, however, neither Luis nor Rachel were home. Berrie! and his friends waited in the car for them to return.

T3 In the meantime, Luis and Rachel had gone to pick up Rachel's younger brother. Rachel testified that the entire trip took fifteen to twenty minutes.2 When they returned to the house, Luis was driving, while Rachel was in the passenger seat and her brother was in the back seat. As the three exited the car, there was no indication of an ongoing argument, nor did any of them appear to be upset. Berrie! immediately ran at Luis with a knife.3 As Berriel approached, Luis told him, "[¥]ou don't need that knife to fight with me." A brief physical encounter ensued, during which Berriel thrust his knife toward Luis's stomach. Luis dropped his arms to protect his abdomen, and the knife caught him in the left forearm. Luis then ran to get his dog from the backyard, and Berriel and his friends fled. Although Luis pursued Berriel and his friends by car, he never caught up with them. Luis later went to the hospital to have his arm stitched. During the encounter, Rachel was somewhere between fifteen feet and fifteen yards away from the altercation.4

T4 Berriel's first claim of error is that the trial court refused to instruct the jury on his defense that the attack on Luis was justified by the need to defend another person, Rachel. See Utah Code Ann. § 76-2-402(1) (2008) ("A person is justified in threatening or using force against another when and to the extent that he or she reasonably believes that force is necessary to defend himself or a third person against such other's imminent use of unlawful force.") {current version at id. § 76-2-402(1)(a) (Supp.2011)). We review the trial court's denial of a requested jury instruction as a question of law for correctness. See State v. Gallegos, 2009 UT 42, 110, 220 P.3d 186. In an analogous situation, the Utah Supreme Court addressed the cireumstances that entitle a defendant to a jury instruction on self-defense, which is codified, along with defense of another, in Utah Code section 76-2-402(1) as a justification defense:

"If the defendant's evidence, although in material conflict with the State's proof, be such that the jury may entertain a reasonable doubt as to whether or not he acted in self-defense, he is entitled to have the jury instructed fully and clearly on the law of self-defense. Conversely, if all reasonable men must conclude that the evidence is so slight as to be incapable of raising a reasonable doubt in the jury's mind as to whether a defendant accused of a crime acted in self-defense, tendered instructions thereon are properly refused."

State v. Maestas, 564 P.2d 1886, 1390 (Utah 1977) (quoting State v. Castillo, 28 Utah 2d 70, 457 P.2d 618, 620 (1969)); see also State v. Garcia, 2001 UT App 19, 18, 18 P.3d 1123 {observing that it is the defendant's burden to "provide some reasonable basis for the jury to conclude" that the action was justified, though the evidence may be presented [1215]*1215by either the prosecution or the defense (emphasis omitted)).

15 The trial court decided there was a sufficient basis for a self-defense instruction in this case because one witness testified that Luis first ran at Berriel. Unlike the self-defense claim, however, there is no evidence capable of creating a reasonable doubt that Berriel may have been acting in defense of Rachel.5 According to the undisputed testimony, when Rachel and Luis arrived at their residence, at least fifteen minutes after Rachel had called Berriel and told him that Luis was assaulting her, they did not appear even to be arguing. There was no evidence that Luis, during the time he could have been observed by Berriel, had threatened, touched, harmed, or even approached Rachel in any way, nor had he exhibited any weapons. In fact, from the point at which he emerged from the car, Luis's attention was directed entirely at Berriel, who was coming at him with a knife.6 Moreover, during Luis's encounter with Berriel, Rachel was at least fifteen feet away and out of the path of the confrontation. On these facts, a jury could not reasonably have concluded that Luis posed a present or imminent threat of unlawful foree to Rachel. See generally Harris v. Scully, 779 F.2d 875, 879 (2d Cir. 1985) (affirming the denial of an instruction on defense of a third person in a murder trial because there was no version of the events in which the jury could have believed that the deceased was about to use deadly force against the defendant's mother or brother when the deceased had just left the home where the mother was located and the brother had broken free from the fistfight); State v. Hernandes, 258 Kan. 705, 861 P.2d 814, 820 (1993) (upholding the trial court's decision to deny an instruction on defense of another where the person allegedly defended was not present during the fight that led to the fatal gunshots because implied threats and a "history of violence [between the deceased and the third person] could not turn the killing into a situation of imminent danger"); State v. Brown, 607 P.2d 261, 266 (Utah 1980) (affirming the denial of justification instructions where the only evidence to support the defendant's theory of self-defense was that the deceased had implicitly threatened him with a club while the defendant was still inside the house and the deceased remained outside).

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State v. Berriel
2011 UT App 317 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2011)

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Bluebook (online)
2011 UT App 317, 262 P.3d 1212, 692 Utah Adv. Rep. 68, 2011 Utah App. LEXIS 321, 2011 WL 4089935, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-berriel-utahctapp-2011.