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State v. Beck7/26/2005
ause he believed it was his only means of escaping the victim's hold and the victim's friends were approaching with the intent to assault him.
The jury was instructed on first-degree assault, and the lesser-included offenses of assault in the second and third degree. At the request of the appellant, the jury was instructed on the issue of self-defense in Instruction No. 11, which was proffered by the appellant and patterned after MAICR 3d 306.06. Instruction No. 11 reads:
One of the issues in this case is whether the use of force by the defendant against Matthew Snarr was in self-defense. In this state, the use of force, including the use of deadly force, to protect oneself from harm is lawful in certain circumstances.
In order for a person lawfully to use force in self-defense, he must reasonably believe he is in imminent danger of harm from the other person. He need not be in actual danger but he must have a reasonable belief that he is in such danger.
If he has such a belief, he is then permitted to use that amount of force which he reasonably believes to be necessary to protect himself.
As used in this instruction, the term 'reasonable belief' means a belief based on reasonable grounds, that is, grounds which could lead a reasonable person in the same situation to the same belief. This depends upon how the facts reasonably appeared. It does not depend upon whether the belief turned out to be true or false.
On the issue of self-defense in this case you are instructed as follows:
If the defendant was not the initial aggressor in the encounter with Matthew Snarr, and if the defendant reasonably believed he was in imminent danger of harm from the acts of Matthew Snarr and the defendant used only such force as reasonably appeared to be necessary to defend himself, then he acted in lawful self-defense.
The State has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not act in lawful self-defense. Unless you find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not act in self-defense, you must find the defendant not guilty in this case.
During closing arguments, the State twice commented on the appellant's self-defense instruction, Instruction No. 11. First, the prosecutor stated: "I would suggest you read the Court's instruction to you on self-defense. It only relates to what Matthew Snarr did, not what anybody else - what the defendant claims somebody else did." Second, during the State's final argument, the prosecutor stated: "[The appellant], under the law, whether we like it or not, is entitled to react only against what Matthew Snarr did, not what some other people supposedly did."
On September 2, 2003, the jury returned its verdicts finding the appellant not guilty of assault in the first degree, but guilty of assault in the second degree. On September 23, 2003, the appellant filed a motion for judgment of acquittal or, in the alternative, for a new trial. None of the issues raised by the appellant on appeal, however, were asserted in the motion, which was overruled.
On January 14, 2004, the trial court sentenced the appellant to three years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. In its form judgment entry, the trial court indicated that the appellant had been convicted of assault in the first degree, a class B felony, rather than assault in the second degree, a class C felony, as found by the jury.
This appeal followed.
I.
Before addressing the merits of the appellant's claims of error, we first must address the obvious discrepancy between the trial court's judgment entry, convicting the appell
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