People v. Wheeler

772 P.2d 101 (1989)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Wheeler (D) and her co-defendant who was her common-law husband, Mitchell Anderson, lived in a triplex in Colorado Springs. Bothun, the victim, lived in another apartment in the same triplex. D and Anderson left their apartment leaving their three children in the care of Michelle Knight. During the evening Bothun and Knight talked about D. This discussion resulted in Bothun becoming angry at D. When D and Anderson returned home, Anderson drove Knight home. During Anderson's absence, D and Bothun struck each other during the course of an argument. When Anderson returned, a fight began between him and Bothun. This fight was eventually broken up. D and Anderson entered their apartment while Bothun and a friend, Matthew Martin, who witnessed the evening's events, returned to Bothun's apartment. Anderson then entered Bothun's apartment with a knife in his hand saying, 'You hit my old lady. I'll kill you, you son of a bitch.' D followed Anderson into Bothun's apartment. Another fight started between Anderson and Bothun. When Anderson was on the floor with Bothun on top of him, D jumped on Bothun's back and pulled his head back by his hair. Martin, who had been present during the altercation, saw that Anderson's knife had been plunged into Bothun's side. After the knife had been withdrawn, Martin took the knife away from Anderson. D and Anderson returned to their apartment, and the police were called. Bothun died from the stab wound. Martin testified that, while Dr was not trying to help Anderson stab Bothun, 'she wasn't trying to prevent it either.' He also testified that the stabbing happened so quickly that it could not have been prevented by a bystander. D and Anderson were charged with first-degree murder and a crime of violence. D's trial was severed from Anderson's at her request. Before trial, the People reduced the charge to second-degree murder and a crime of violence. The trial court instructed the jury, over D's objection, on the lesser included offenses of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, and a complicity instruction was also given. The jury returned a verdict of guilty to the offense of criminally negligent homicide. D moved for judgment of acquittal on the ground that it is a logical and legal impossibility to commit the crime of criminally negligent homicide by complicity. The court stated that criminally negligent homicide is an unintentional killing caused by the actor's failure to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a certain result will occur . . . . A finding that a defendant intended to perpetrate an unintentional killing or a finding that one had knowledge that another intended to perpetrate an unintentional killing is a logical impossibility. It then ruled that there can be no crime of criminally negligent homicide by a complicitor, and given the fact that D was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter, she has been acquitted. P appealed.