State v. Bowers

721 P.2d 268, 239 Kan. 417, 1986 Kan. LEXIS 350
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJune 13, 1986
Docket58,571
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 721 P.2d 268 (State v. Bowers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Bowers, 721 P.2d 268, 239 Kan. 417, 1986 Kan. LEXIS 350 (kan 1986).

Opinions

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Schroeder, C.J.:

The defendant, David Bowers, appeals his conviction by a Shawnee County, Kansas, jury of aggravated battery against a law enforcement officer (K.S.A. 21-3415). The issues on appeal are whether Doberman pinschers are deadly weapons and can inflict great bodily harm as required by K.S.A. 21-3414(c), whether K.S.A. 21-3414(c) is unconstitutionally vague, and whether the defendant was improperly sentenced to both imprisonment and restitution.

On July 29, 1984, after becoming intoxicated, the defendant caused an accident in the parking lot of a grocery store. He fled the scene in his truck at a high rate of speed and rammed from behind a family auto containing four people, demolishing the auto. Miraculously, no major injuries were suffered. Bowers then pulled the uninsured truck into the yard where he lived and started to repair the damage.

Shortly thereafter on the same day, three Topeka police officers went to the defendant’s house in Topeka to investigate hit-and-run accidents involving a light blue Chevrolet pickup. The defendant lived at home with his mother, father, brother, and a boarder. Officer Scott Killingsworth was the first police officer to arrive. He found the defendant working on a truck which had fresh damage to the grill and bumper. When the officer approached the truck, the defendant went inside the house. Officer Killingsworth questioned the defendant’s father about the truck. The father responded he didn’t know anything about a hit-and-run accident and went inside the house.

The defendant appeared to Officer Killingsworth to be drunk. The defendant testified at trial he was drunk; he had consumed a half case of beer and had taken approximately ten pills of Valium that day.

The defendant came back outside and ordered the police off his property and returned inside. After Officer John Hatcher arrived, the defendant came outside holding a padlock in his hand. He told the officers he was going to lock the gate, let his [419]*419Doberman pinschers loose and sic them on the officers. He said his dogs were vicious and they would rip out the officers’ “guts” and kill them. At that point, Officer Kent Cowhick arrived with an eyewitness who positively identified the defendant as the driver of the truck involved in a hit-and-run accident. Hatcher told the defendant he was under arrest and asked the defendant for identification. The defendant said it was inside. Uninvited, Officers Hatcher and Cowhick followed the defendant inside. Cowhick stood by the kitchen door where one Doberman pinscher came up to him and watched him. The defendant could not provide any identification. Officer Hatcher then took hold of the defendant to take him into custody. The defendant jerked away, and again Officer Hatcher took hold of him and .tried to place handcuffs on him. Hatcher, leaned the defendant over a couch and the two began struggling. What followed was a short free-for-all, complete with yelling and screaming.

Officer Cowhick testified that when Officer Hatcher landed on top of the defendant during the struggle, the dogs went over to the scuffle. One dog bit at Hatcher’s boot and the other dog bit Hatcher’s leg. Cowhick grabbed Hatcher’s night stick, started hitting the dogs, and called for help. Cowhick testified he would hit a dog and it would “pop right out” at him. Cowhick didn’t hear the defendant order the dogs to attack.

Officer Hatcher testified that as he was trying to handcuff the defendant, the defendant yelled twice at his parents who had one dog restrained, “Let the dogs loose, and get him.” The dogs did not come over until the defendant gave that order. One dog grabbed Hatcher’s boot and the other one his calf. The defendant’s brother, James, entered the scuffle not trying to pull the dogs off Hatcher, but trying to pull Hatcher off the defendant. At one point, Hatcher pulled out his gun intending to shoot the dogs and then pointed the gun at the defendant. Hatcher, however, put his gun away due to the number of people in the room. Hatcher testified that while he had his gun out, the defendant was telling the dogs to attack.

Upon receiving Officer Cowhick’s call for help, Officer Killingsworth entered the house where he saw Cowhick and Hatcher struggling with the defendant and the defendant’s brother; Cowhick was also striking at two Doberman pinschers that were loose and lunging at the officers.

[420]*420By the end of this free-for-all, Hatcher had received facial scratches, 'a laceration to the eye which required two stitches, and one dog bite in his calf that went through the muscle and down to the bone.

In a jury trial, the defendant was convicted of aggravated battery against a law enforcement officer and was sentenced to from five to twenty years along with restitution in the amount of $5,853.53.

The first issue defendant raises on appeal is two-fold: whether the trial court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal made at the end of the trial because (1) there was no evidence Doberman pinschers are “deadly weapons” within K.S.A. 21-3414(c); and (2) there was no evidence the Doberman pinschers were used in a manner in which great bodily harm could have been inflicted.

The charge of aggravated battery against a law enforcement officer, pursuant to K.S.A. 21-3415, incorporates the elements of aggravated battery as set forth in K.S.A. 21-3414, as follows:

“Aggravated battery is the unlawful touching or application of force to the person of another with intent to injure that person or another and which either:
“(a) Inflicts great bodily harm upon him; or
“(b) Causes any disfigurement or dismemberment to or of his person; or
“(c) Is done with a deadly weapon, or in any manner whereby great bodily harm, disfigurement, dismemberment, or death can be inflicted.” (Emphasis added.)

The defendant was charged in the alternative under K.S.A. 21-3414(c): he unlawfully touched or applied force to Officer Hatcher, with the intent to injure Officer Hatcher, and that touching or force was done with a deadly weapon, two Doberman pinschers; or (2) that he unlawfully touched or applied force to Officer Hatcher, with the intent to injure Officer Hatcher, and that touching or force was done in a manner whereby great bodily harm, disfigurement, or death could have been inflicted upon Officer Hatcher. See PIK Crim. 2d 56.18, 56.19. We note the trial court also instructed the jury on the offense of simple battery against a law enforcement officer, which does not require the element of intent to injure necessary with aggravated battery against a law enforcement officer. The defendant was convicted on the aggravated charge.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
721 P.2d 268, 239 Kan. 417, 1986 Kan. LEXIS 350, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bowers-kan-1986.