 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Shaw v. State6/15/1999
In the Court of Appeals of Georgia
BA-007C
Melvin Shaw and a co-defendant were indicted on three counts of aggravated assault on a police officer. A jury convicted the co-defendant of all three assault charges, acquitted Shaw of one assault charge, and convicted him of two assault charges. Shaw, who was 18 and a high school junior at the time of the incident, had no previous convictions and was sentenced to serve 15 years. He appeals the aggravated assault convictions, arguing that the trial court erred in failing to charge on the lesser included offense of reckless conduct, and that insufficient evidence supported the convictions. Because we conclude the trial court should have charged the jury on reckless conduct, we reverse.
The charges arose out of a high speed car chase through east Atlanta. Several officers testified that someone in the Cadillac they were chasing fired at them on three separate occasions. The three aggravated assault charges arose from two of the shooting incidents. The first charge alleged Shaw and his co-defendant assaulted Officer W. C. Jones with a handgun; this was the charge of which Shaw was acquitted. The second and third charges alleged assaults against Officers R. A. Mason and Craig Kailimai, who were riding together.
1. Shaw contends the trial court erred in refusing to charge reckless conduct as a lesser included offense of aggravated assault on a police officer. He argues that a fellow passenger's statement that Shaw shot into the air while the police were chasing them was sufficient to justify a reckless conduct charge.
In the statement, the passenger said:
" When I knew something was going on I had heard the police siren. And so I looked behind us. I saw the police car with the lights on. I asked what was going on. Someone said the police got behind us. We were just riding. We were on the expressway. Before we got to the expressway, Melvin had his hand out the window and I heard about four or five shots. He was pointing up in the air and shooting."
The police officer who took this statement testified that he thought the passenger described a shooting incident that took place before the car entered the expressway.
Slight evidence is sufficient to justify charging on a lesser included offense, and information contained in a statement introduced by the State can constitute such evidence. Edwards v. State, 264 Ga. 131, 132-133 (442 SE2d 444) (1994). The question, then, is whether shooting out of a car into the air while police are pursuing could also constitute the crime of reckless conduct. If so, the trial court erred in failing to give the charge.
Shaw was indicted for "an assault on the person of R. A. Mason [and C. Kailimai] with a handgun, a deadly weapon," and was convicted on those two counts under a jury charge that permitted his conviction if the jury found that, with a deadly weapon, Shaw either attempted to commit a violent injury to the officers or placed the officers in reasonable apprehension of immediately receiving a violent injury. The trial court further charged that "a person commits the offense of aggravated assault when that person assaults another person with a deadly weapon," but declined to charge reckless conduct as a lesser included offense.
The Code defines reckless conduct as causing bodily harm to or endangering the bodily safety of another person "by consciously disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk that his act or omission will cause harm or endanger the safety of the other person and the disregard constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care...." OCGA ยง 16-5-60 (b).
"Both crim
Page 1 2 3 Georgia Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|