State v. Marquez

127 P.3d 786, 131 Wash. App. 566
Court of Appeals of Washington·Decided February 7, 2006·No. 31266-2-II, 32496-2-II·Published·Cited by 13 cases

Opinion

127 P.3d 786 (2006)

STATE of Washington, Respondent,
v.
Logan Justice MARQUEZ, Appellant.

Nos. 31266-2-II, 32496-2-II.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 2.

February 7, 2006.

*787 Manek R. Mistry, Jodi R. Backlund, Backlund & Mistry, Olympia, WA, for Appellant.

Deborah Snyder Kelly, Attorney at Law, Port Angeles, WA, for Respondent.

HUNT, J.

¶ 1 Logan J. Marquez appeals his jury conviction for second degree assault with a deadly weapon. He argues that the trial court used an unconstitutional combination of jury instructions, which essentially relieved the State of its burden of proof and improperly negated self defense. The State responds that Marquez both invited and waived this claimed error, which was harmless. We disagree.

¶ 2 Holding that the self defense instructions were erroneous under Rodriguez[1] and denied Marquez a fair trial, we reverse and remand for a new trial.

FACTS

I. THE ASSAULT

¶ 3 The relevant facts are not in dispute. On April 19, 2003, Logan Marquez, his girlfriend Wendy Sampson, and their friends were outside a convenience store in Port Angeles. Brian and Kentra Morseburg arrived by car at the store. Marquez and his *788 friends engaged in a racially-tinged verbal confrontation with the Morsebergs, which turned into a physical fight. The witnesses' accounts differed about who started the fight.

¶ 4 According to Marquez and his friend Anita Charles, Brian Morseburg[2] punched Sampson twice — once in the face and once knocking her into a car. Before Brian could hit Sampson a third time, Marquez intervened, hitting Brian on the head with a flashlight from behind. Brian fell to the ground, hitting his head on the hard paved surface. Marquez testified that he kicked Brian's legs out of "adrenalin" and "anger" because Brian had beaten his girlfriend. Other witnesses testified that both Marquez and Sampson kicked Brian, and, according to at least one witness, Marquez kicked Brian's side and Sampson kicked Brian's head. When the fight ended, Brian lay on the pavement unconscious.

¶ 5 Brian suffered severe injury to his head, causing physical disability and inability to care for himself fully. His physician, however, could not determine precisely what had caused this severe degree of impairment, stating that being struck on the back of the head, falling to the hard pavement without being able to cushion the fall, and being kicked in the head, alone, or in combination, could have caused Brian's injuries.

¶ 6 Sampson's physician testified that two or three days after the altercation, Sampson had bruises on her arms in the shape of handprints and pain in her upper left arm and right shoulder. Her injuries were not life-threatening.

II. PROCEDURE

¶ 7 The State charged Marquez with first degree assault with a deadly weapon, a flashlight.

A. Trial

¶ 8 The case went to a jury trial. Marquez did not deny hitting Brian with the flashlight or kicking him in the leg one time, but he contended he did so in defense of his girlfriend, Sampson, whom Brian was assaulting and injuring.

¶ 9 On cross examination, the State asked Marquez:

Q: [Regarding the location of your car, t]he police asked the day you were in custody and you refused to tell them and your attorney refused to tell them that day, didn't he?

Report of Proceedings (RP) Vol. 6 at 51. Marquez objected, asserting that Marquez had exercised his right to remain silent, on which the State could not comment. The trial court sustained Marquez's objection.

¶ 10 After both parties rested, Marquez asserted that he was entitled to a defense-of-another instruction, arguing that another witness had seen Brian hit Sampson and that there was photographic and medical evidence of her injuries. The State opposed giving such instruction, arguing the evidence was insufficient to show that a reasonable person would have felt justified in using lethal force.[3]

¶ 11 Ruling that Marquez had presented evidence that Brian was assaulting Sampson, sufficient to support his defense-of-another claim, the trial court granted Marquez's request.[4] The trial court gave the following pertinent jury instructions:

To convict the Defendant, Logan Justice Marquez, of the crime of ASSAULT IN THE FIRST DEGREE as charged, each of the following elements of the crime must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt:
*789 (1) That on or about the 19th day of April, 2003, the Defendant, Logan Justice Marquez assaulted Brian Morseburg;
(2) That the Defendant, Logan Justice Marquez, acted with intent to inflict great bodily harm;
(3) That the assault
(a) was committed with a deadly weapon or by force or means likely to produce great bodily harm or death; or
(b) resulted in the infliction of great bodily harm; and
(4) That the acts occurred in the State of Washington.

Instruction No. 9; Clerk's Papers (CP) at 63.

If you are not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of the crime charged, the defendant may be found guilty of any lesser crime the commission of which is necessarily included in the crime charged, if the evidence is sufficient to establish the defendant's guilt of such lesser crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
The crime of assault in the first degree necessarily includes the lesser crimes of assault in the second degree, assault in the third degree and assault in the fourth degree.
....
A person commits the crime of ASSAULT IN THE SECOND DEGREE when under circumstances not amounting to ASSAULT IN THE FIRST DEGREE he intentionally assaults another and thereby recklessly inflicts substantial bodily harm or assaults another with a deadly weapon.

Instruction Nos. 14 and 15; CP at 68, 69.

Great bodily harm means bodily injury that creates a probability of death, or which causes significant serious permanent disfigurement, or that causes a significant permanent loss or impairment of the function of any bodily part or organ.

Instruction No. 10; WASHINGTON PATTERN JURY INSTRUCTIONS: CRIMINAL § 2.04, at 21 (1994); CP at 64.

A person is entitled to act on appearances in defending another, if that person believes in good faith and on reasonable grounds that another is in actual danger of great bodily harm, although it afterwards might develop that the person was mistaken as to the extent of the danger. Actual danger is not necessary for the use of force to be lawful.

Instruction No. 29; CP at 83 (emphasis added). The trial court did not give an additional instruction defining "great bodily harm" for purposes of "defense of another." Marquez neither objected to the trial court's failure to give such an instruction nor proposed one himself. Thus, the jury received only the definition of "great bodily harm" applicable to proving first degree assault.

¶ 12 The jury convicted Marquez of the lesser offense, second degree assault, while armed with a deadly weapon. The trial court sentenced Marquez to an exceptional sentence of 54 months in prison. The court based this exceptiona

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State v. Marquez, 127 P.3d 786, 131 Wash. App. 566 (Wash. Ct. App. 2006).

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