State v. Zephier

2012 S.D. 16, 2012 SD 16, 810 N.W.2d 770, 2012 WL 666174
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 29, 2012
Docket26030
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 2012 S.D. 16 (State v. Zephier) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Zephier, 2012 S.D. 16, 2012 SD 16, 810 N.W.2d 770, 2012 WL 666174 (S.D. 2012).

Opinion

WILBUR, Justice.

[¶ 1.] Jeremy Zephier appeals his aggravated assault conviction arguing that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his (1) proposed jury instruction and (2) motion for a new trial. We affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

[¶2.] Zephier was at Donita Wika’s Vermillion apartment drinking beer with friends on a Friday evening. That same evening, Julia Marshall, Zephier’s former girlfriend, was with her new boyfriend, Carlos Diaz. Marshall and Diaz visited several bars in downtown Vermillion where both consumed alcohol. When the bars closed, both Marshall and Diaz attended a house party. However, Marshall left the party without Diaz and went over to Wika’s apartment which was located across the hall from her own apartment. Marshall continued to consume alcohol with Zephier, Wika, and their friends.

[¶ 3.] When Diaz realized Marshall had left the party, he went to her apartment complex to look for her. When Marshall did not answer her door, Diaz went across the hall to Wika’s apartment where he heard noise and suspected Marshall was inside. Almost immediately after entering the apartment, Zephier attacked Diaz by striking him several times in the face with his fist and kicking Diaz when he fell to the ground.

[¶ 4.] With the exception of the foregoing, many of the relevant facts were subject to conflicting evidence at trial. * The *772 evidence presented by Zephier attempted to portray Diaz as an unwanted intruder into the apartment. Therefore, according to Zephier, his force was justified as self-defense and to prevent Diaz from trespassing. In contrast, the State presented evidence that Zephier had no legal justification for his use of force because Diaz simply went to Wika’s apartment looking for Marshall.

[¶ 5.] Before submitting the issue to the jury, the trial court rejected Zephier’s proposed instruction regarding when it is lawful to use force in preventing a trespass. The rejected instruction provided, in relevant part:

Under certain circumstances it is lawful to use or attempt or offer to use force or violence upon or toward the person of another. The force or violence may be employed.... In preventing or attempting to prevent any trespass ....

(Emphasis added.)

[¶ 6.] Although the trial court rejected Zephier’s instruction, it gave the jury South Dakota Criminal Pattern Jury Instruction 2-9-1. This instruction provided, in relevant part:

Under certain circumstances it is lawful to use or attempt or offer to use force or violence upon or toward the person of another.... In preventing or attempting to prevent an illegal
attempt by force to take or injure property in a person’s lawful possession....

[¶ 7.] The jury convicted Zephier of aggravated assault. Following the conviction, Zephier filed a motion for a new trial on the basis of an irregularity in the proceeding and newly discovered evidence. The trial court denied Zephier’s motion. Zephier appeals to this Court arguing that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his proposed instruction and his motion for a new trial.

ANALYSIS AND DECISION

[¶ 8.] 1. Whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying Ze-phier’s proposed jury instruction.

[¶ 9.] Zephier argues that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his proposed instruction because, according to Zephier, his proposed instruction was a correct statement of the law. “[W]e generally review a trial court’s decision to grant or deny a particular instruction under the abuse of discretion standard. However, no court has discretion to give incorrect, misleading, conflicting, or confusing instructions.... ” Fix v. First State Bank of Roscoe, 2011 S.D. 80, ¶ 10, 807 N.W.2d 612, 615-16 (quoting Bertelsen v. Allstate Ins. Co., 2011 S.D. 13, ¶ 26, 796 N.W.2d 685, 695).

[¶ 10.] The substantive difference between Zephier’s proposed instruction, and the instruction given to the jury, is that the given instruction did not provide that “force or violence may be employed ... [i]n preventing or attempting to prevent any trespass” as Zephier requested. (Emphasis added.) Rather, the language in the given instruction limited when force or violence is justified in preventing a trespass.

[¶ 11.] In denying Zephier’s proposed instruction in favor of the pattern instruction, the trial court relied on SDCL 22-18-4, which provides:

Any person is justified in the use of force or violence against another person *773 when the person reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to prevent or terminate the other person’s trespass on or other criminal interference with real property or personal property lawfully in his or her possession or in the possession of another who is a member of his or her immediate family or household or of a person whose property he or she has a legal right to protect.... A person does not have a duty to retreat if the person is in a place where he or she has a right to be.

The trial court reasoned that, based on the language of SDCL 22-18-4, Zephier’s proposed instruction was overinclusive as to when an individual may use force to prevent a trespass. We agree.

[¶ 12.] SDCL 22-18-4 has several limitations as to when force or violence may be used to “prevent or terminate” a trespass. Specifically, an individual may only use force to prevent or terminate a

trespass on or other criminal interference with real property or personal property lawfully in his or her possession or in the possession of another who is a member of his or her immediate family or household or of a person whose property he or she has a legal right to protect.

[¶ 13.] Zephier’s proposed instruction misstates the law by omitting the limitations contained in SDCL 22-18-4 and providing that force or -violence may be employed in preventing or attempting to prevent any trespass. In contrast to Ze-phier’s instruction, the jury instruction given by the trial court reflects the limiting language contained in SDCL 22-18-4 by providing an individual may use force “[i]n preventing or attempting to prevent an illegal attempt by force to take or injure property in a person’s lawful possession.” (Emphasis added.) Thus, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the proposed instruction and giving the pattern jury instruction.

[¶ 14.] 2.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2012 S.D. 16, 2012 SD 16, 810 N.W.2d 770, 2012 WL 666174, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-zephier-sd-2012.