10 results for 'cat:"Evidence" AND cat:"Murder" AND cat:"Jury Instructions"'.
J. Soto finds a lower court did not err in convicting defendant for murder. Defendant raised a number of issues with his conviction, including arguing a lower court had improperly negated his sudden-passion claim that he had “snapped” and killed the victim because she rejected him, but while the record does indeed show that defendant was both “jealous and possessive,” courts have long held that “a rejection of a romantic proposal does not qualify as adequate cause for purposes of the sudden passion defense,” not least because a person of “ordinary temper” does not murder people based on romantic rejections. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Soto, Filed On: February 29, 2024, Case #: 08-22-00177-CR, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions
J. Kemp finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for two counts of first-degree murder. Officers responded to a call by a victim's son when he discovered his mother and defendant's father dead from gunshot wounds. The father's body appeared to officers to be posed with a gun in its hand, though it was later confirmed he had been shot six times by that very gun. Furthermore, the trial court properly rejected proffered instructions on justification and kidnapping because there was no evidence defendant reasonably believed the victims were about to commit a felony with force or violence, or that his life was in imminent danger. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Kemp , Filed On: February 22, 2024, Case #: CR-23-486, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions
J. Herndon finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for first-degree murder with a deadly weapon. Surveillance video shows defendant stabbed the victim in the neck on a Las Vegas street. Defendant fails to support his argument the victim threatened him with a gun, and an emotional outburst by the victim's family during a viewing of the video is no basis for mistrial or curative instruction. Affirmed.
Court: Nevada Supreme Court, Judge: Herndon , Filed On: February 15, 2024, Case #: 86208, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions
J. Greenlee finds the lower court properly convicted defendant of first-degree murder and shooting a firearm into a vehicle. Defendant shot a gun in a convenience store parking lot, killing a man sitting in the back seat of another car. Surveillance video captured the incident. Evidence is sufficient to support her convictions and sentence of life imprisonment with eligibility for parole, with five concurrent years suspended and three years post-release supervision. Defendant’s claim the jury was improperly instructed is without merit as the lower court judge excluded the lesser charge of second-degree murder, but the defendant failed to object, thereby waiving her right to later argue the issue. Affirmed.
Court: Mississippi Court Of Appeals, Judge: Greenlee, Filed On: November 14, 2023, Case #: 2022-KA-00446-COA, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions
J. Baker finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for murder. Defendant killed the victim with a machete after a night of drinking which ended in an altercation involving what defendant claims was the victim’s threat that he was going to “whip” defendant and steal his vehicle. The court properly declined to submit defendant’s proffered jury instruction on justification, submitting a modified version of the model instruction. Case law cited by defendant did not support his position, and the language from the model instruction, modified to include justification instructions, accurately stated the law. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Baker, Filed On: October 26, 2023, Case #: CR-23-202, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions
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J. Golemon finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for murder. Two eyewitnesses testified that when the victim asked defendant to buy beer, he went to his house, returned with a gun and shot the victim in the head. He then hid in a ditch, where police later arrested him. Though defendant gave detectives a statement almost 18 months after the shooting, saying that three “men in black” forced him to smoke synthetic marijuana and kill the victim, then chased him until he fell in the ditch, the jury rejected his duress defense. The evidence is sufficient to support the jury’s rejection of the defense. The court properly refused instruction on involuntary intoxication because defendant stated that the synthetic marijuana didn’t take effect until he fell in the ditch. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Golemon, Filed On: August 30, 2023, Case #: 09-21-00106-CR, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions
J. Shea finds that the district court properly denied defendant's request for a jury instruction on the lesser-included offense of mitigated deliberate homicide because his only legal theory was acquittal based on his argument that he was out of town and his wife killed their roommate. However, there was insufficient evidence that his roommate's truck which he sold after his death was worth more than $1,500, as required to support his conviction for felony deceptive practices. Reversed in part.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Shea, Filed On: July 5, 2023, Case #: DA 20-0243, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions
J. O'Leary finds that the trial court provided the jury in defendant's first degree murder trial with clear, unambiguous instructions on provocation, premeditation and deliberation. Ample evidence that he returned to a car, retrieved two knives and pursued the victim on foot over an extended distance showed he had plenty of time to reflect and that the killing was deliberate and premeditated. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: O'Leary, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: G061077, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions