State v. Oates

803 S.E.2d 911, 421 S.C. 1, 2017 WL 3161126, 2017 S.C. App. LEXIS 63
CourtCourt of Appeals of South Carolina
DecidedJuly 26, 2017
DocketOpinion No. 5502.
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 803 S.E.2d 911 (State v. Oates) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Oates, 803 S.E.2d 911, 421 S.C. 1, 2017 WL 3161126, 2017 S.C. App. LEXIS 63 (S.C. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

*915GEATHERS, J.:

**7Appellant Preston Ryan Oates seeks review of his convictions for voluntary manslaughter and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Appellant also challenges the denial of his motion for immunity from prosecution pursuant to the Protection of Persons and Property Act (the Act).1 Appellant argues the circuit court erred in denying his motion for immunity because (1) there was evidence that the victim, Carlos Olivera (Victim), was attempting to forcibly remove Appellant from his occupied vehicle, and (2) the circuit court's finding that the conflict had resolved at the time of the shooting was not supported by the evidence.

Appellant also challenges the circuit court's refusal to direct a verdict of acquittal on the ground that the State failed to disprove self-defense. Finally, Appellant assigns error to the circuit court's decision to give a voluntary manslaughter instruction to the jury on the ground that there was no evidence of sudden heat of passion. We affirm.

FACTS/PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On December 24, 2010, at approximately 8:00 p.m., Victim and his family visited his brother, Nelson Olivera (Nelson), and Nelson's family at their home in the Edgefield neighborhood near Bluffton. Although the Edgefield Homeowner's Association (the HOA) had prohibited parking on the streets in the subdivision, Victim parked his minivan on the street in **8front of the house of Nelson's neighbor, Steve Varedi. While Victim, Nelson, and their two families were visiting inside Nelson's house, Appellant, who had been hired by the HOA to tow illegally parked vehicles, noticed Victim's minivan and placed an automotive disabling device, i.e., a "boot," on the minivan's left front wheel. By the time Appellant was proceeding to hook up the minivan to the tow truck, Varedi had notified Victim that Appellant was about to tow Victim's minivan.

Victim, Nelson, and Varedi approached Appellant to ask him to refrain from towing the minivan because it was Christmas Eve and Victim was going to leave at that moment. When Appellant saw the three men approaching him, he felt intimidated and went back into the cab of his truck, shut the door, and locked it. Subsequently, Appellant rolled down the driver's side door window to speak with the men. According to Nelson, he was pleading for Appellant to release the minivan.

However, Appellant told investigators that when the three men approached him, they were running "a little abruptly" and were "hooting" and "hollering." He stated both Nelson and Victim jumped up on the truck's running board and started talking to him through the window and Victim told Varedi, "Go get my shotgun." Appellant recounted Nelson saying, "Take that off his vehicle," to which Appellant responded, "Okay[,] let me call my office and see what they [want to] do and we'll get a handle.... It's not a problem, we can work this out."

Appellant then heard "a round being chambered" as well as Victim stating, "You're [going to] take this off right now and I'm leaving," to which Appellant responded, "[T]hat's fine." Appellant further stated he stalled to regain his composure by fumbling with his set of keys and dropping them twice and he "kept kind of freaking out a little bit." Nelson's testimony was consistent with these two statements. Nelson admitted that Victim pulled a gun out of his pants, ratcheted the gun, and stated, "Nobody's going to take my car." Nelson stated Appellant "seemed very nervous, moving some keys and touching some papers," although he indicated this was already occurring when Victim pulled out his gun.

**9Appellant indicated that as he was fumbling with his keys, Nelson "grabbed" them along with the lock tool that releases the boot and took them to the front of the minivan.2 According to Appellant, while Victim was still "in the window," he asked Appellant if he had any paperwork on the minivan and stated he did not want law enforcement to "come look" for him. This dialogue frightened Appellant; he recounted, "[T]hat threw up a major red flag because he wants to make sure there's nothing in my vehicle that will *916connect me to his car." Appellant then pulled out his ledger and showed it to Victim to reassure him that Appellant had no paperwork on the minivan. While he was showing Victim the ledger, Appellant opened his glove box and pulled out his gun along with some papers on top of it to hide it.

At this point, another neighbor, Reba Bryan, offered to call 911, but both Appellant and Nelson told her it was unnecessary. According to Appellant, he stated, "Don't worry about it, everything's fine, go back inside, he's got a gun, so everything's okay here" in an attempt to give her the message to call 911 without alerting the other men to his message. Appellant then heard Nelson yell out something in Spanish to Victim. At that moment, Victim "look[ed] at [Appellant] and he [stated], '[O]kay you're [going to] come get this s**t off.... Come get this s**t off now.' " Appellant described the next few moments in the following manner:

[Victim] unlocked the door of my truck and pulled the handle and opened it, and as he opened it, he was stepping down off of the running board ... so he was opening it with his left hand.... As he stepped back, I saw him with his right hand reach and grab the pistol that was ... kind of stuffed in his belt in the front. Well, [with] my line of sight and where he was, I didn't [want to] just cross through the cab, so as he opened it, just to play along like I was [going to] exit the vehicle to unlock the boot, [because] he was already in draw, in motion.... And ... as he was stepping down[,] the door was open and he was starting to draw, I came around and I rotated and actually ... I [exited] the [cab] and as I was [exiting] the [cab], since I had a little bit of [a] height advantage on him, as I [exited] out straight **10instead of toward him, I [exited] straight out my door stepping off of the metal running boards ... and I was [exiting] out, and I looked and my line of sight was through him straight down to the ground. It's now or never. He's already in motion and he's in draw. Whether he's drawing it to intimidate me, to keep me to go do what he wants me to do, or if he knew I didn't have any information on his vehicle and ... ah, bye, bye, Preston ... regardless, he was in motion, he was in draw and I reacted. I know ... I remember the very first shot. I caught him on the left side....
And that made him rotate left. Well, I didn't know if I grazed his ... the edge of his arm, if I grazed him under his ... I don't ... I didn't see [the] impact. I just know that I ... right when I was able to lock my elbows and squeeze the trigger ... I hit him on the left side. ... And so it may have caused him to rotate.... so he turned towards the yard .... And as he ... went that way, I remember seeing this part of his shoulder right here.... He was still a threat to me. You're a threat until you're disarmed or you're unconscious. I discharged again. I ... don't know how many times I pulled the trigger....
I remember two shots....

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
803 S.E.2d 911, 421 S.C. 1, 2017 WL 3161126, 2017 S.C. App. LEXIS 63, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-oates-scctapp-2017.