State v. Merideth

942 P.2d 803, 149 Or. App. 164, 1997 Ore. App. LEXIS 959
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJuly 9, 1997
Docket94CR1084, 94CR1982 CA A90206 (Control), CA A90207
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 942 P.2d 803 (State v. Merideth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Merideth, 942 P.2d 803, 149 Or. App. 164, 1997 Ore. App. LEXIS 959 (Or. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

*166 DE MUNIZ, J.

Defendant was convicted, in a consolidated trial, 1 of three counts each of aggravated murder, ORS 163.095, felony-murder, ORS 163.115, manslaughter in the first degree, ORS 163.118, and arson in the first degree. ORS 164.325. 2 Those convictions stem from a single incident in 1994, in which defendant started a fire in the unoccupied first floor of a two-story duplex. A woman and her two young children, who lived in the second story, died as a result. Defendant assigns error to the trial court’s refusal to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of reckless burning. ORS 164.335. 3 He also raises two assignments of error concerning his sentencing. We affirm.

Defendant’s first assignment contends that the trial court erred by denying his request to instruct the jury on the crime of reckless burning as a lesser included crime of arson in the first degree. We review the refusal to instruct the jury on a lesser included crime for errors of law. ORS 138.220; State v. Cunningham, 320 Or 47, 57, 880 P2d 431 (1994).

The right to a lesser included crime instruction is limited to those cases where there is “ ‘evidence, or an inference which can be drawn from the evidence, which supports the requested instruction so that the jury could rationally and consistently find the defendant guilty of the lesser offense and innocent of the greater.’ ” Id. at 58 (quoting State v. Washington, 273 Or 829, 838, 543 P2d 1058 (1975)). The *167 state does not dispute defendant’s claim that reckless burning is a lesser included offense of arson. See State v. Booth, 284 Or 615, 618, 588 P2d 614 (1978). However, the state does contend that there is no evidence that would rationally support a reckless burning instruction here. We agree.

At trial, defendant argued that the fire was caused by faulty electrical wiring. On appeal, he points to no specific evidence in the record that would indicate that he recklessly damaged the building by starting the fire. Rather, defendant argues that because he was charged in the manslaughter 4 counts with having a reckless mental state, there must necessarily be evidence in the record from which the jury could find that defendant acted with the reckless mental state to support a finding of reckless burning. We disagree with defendant’s assertion that the mental element as to each offense is identical: the mental state exists in relationship to a particular circumstance or result. ORS 161.085(9). “Recklessly” in the reckless burning statute, thus, describes a mental state associated with the act of damaging property. “Recklessly” in the manslaughter statute describes a mental state associated with the act of causing a person’s death. Evidence that a person acted recklessly in causing another person’s death does not necessarily establish that a person recklessly damaged property. Therefore, in the absence of evidence to support a reckless burning charge, defendant’s argument fails.

We turn to defendant’s sentencing. The trial court sentenced defendant to three consecutive life terms on each count of aggravated murder. Each count also carried a minimum term of confinement of 30 years without possibility of parole. ORS 163.105(l)(c). The three counts of felony murder and three counts of arson were merged with the aggravated murder counts. The court refused to merge the manslaughter counts with the aggravated murder counts, and defendant was sentenced to three consecutive sentences on the manslaughter counts, totaling over 48 years. Those sentences are *168 to be served concurrently with the sentences imposed on the aggravated murder counts. The court ordered post-prison supervision for life on the aggravated murder counts and three years on the manslaughter counts. Defendant was also ordered to pay $20,000 for attorney fees and $10,476 for restitution.

Defendant assigns error to the trial court’s failure to merge his manslaughter convictions with his convictions for aggravated murder. We review for errors of law. ORS 138.220.

Relying on our decision in State v. Henry, 138 Or App 286, 288, 907 P2d 1133 (1995), defendant argues that this is a case of “true merger” in that “there are no elements of manslaughter in the first degree which are not included in the crime of aggravated murder.” In Henry, we held that manslaughter in the first degree, as defined in ORS 163.118(l)(a) is a lesser included offense of intentional murder, as defined in ORS 163.115(l)(a). That holding, however, provides no support for defendant’s merger argument.

Defendant was charged with aggravated murder, as defined in ORS 163.095(l)(d). 5 That particular formulation of the aggravated murder statute requires that the state prove the elements of felony murder, as defined in ORS 163.115(l)(b)(A), and that “there was more than one murder victim in the same criminal episode [.]” Arson in the first degree, as defined in ORS 164.325(l)(b) was alleged as the underlying felony. Under the state’s aggravated murder formulation, it did not have to prove that defendant intentionally caused the victims’ deaths. Rather, the state needed only to prove that defendant “intentionally damaged property’ and that the “act [of damaging property] recklessly placed another person in danger of physical injury.”

However, even assuming that “recklessly,” as used in the arson statute describes a mens rea element identical to *169

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
942 P.2d 803, 149 Or. App. 164, 1997 Ore. App. LEXIS 959, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-merideth-orctapp-1997.