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State v. Ortiz6/10/2003
lows from the nail board. He also opined that Correa died from brain injuries and skull fractures caused by blunt-force trauma. Nevertheless, defendant in this case alleged that an involuntary-manslaughter instruction was warranted because his actions amounted to self-defense and he did not intend to kill Correa.
The defendant's alleged actions in this case were similar in theory to those described in State v. Ventre, 811 A.2d 1178, 1181, 1184 (R.I. 2002). In Ventre, this Court held that the trial justice should have provided a voluntary-manslaughter instruction, such as the one that the trial justice gave in this case. Id. at 1184. In Ventre, the defendant fired his weapon three times, killing one of his four assailants and injuring another. Id. at 1181, 1184. Although the defendant in Ventre explained that he did not know that, as a result of his actions, one of his assailants had died, he purposefully and voluntarily retrieved his gun from his car and fired at his four attackers. See id. at 1181. In Ventre, the defendant's alleged actions were voluntary: in shooting at the four men in the manner that he did, he necessarily must have intended to kill or to wound them grievously, albeit he asserted he did so only in self-defense. See id. In this case, defendant's actions also were voluntary; he continuously and purposefully battered Correa with the nail board, thereby intending by his conduct to kill or to inflict serious injury on Correa. In Ventre and in this case, both defendants, by their conduct, acted in a manner that would tend to kill or, at the very least, to cause serious bodily injury to their victims. LaFave, § 7.10(a) at 704. Their asserted conduct, if the fact-finder were to believe their testimony, entitled them to a jury instruction on self-defense and on voluntary manslaughter, but it did not warrant an involuntarymanslaughter instruction.
In this case, if defendant's version of what happened were creditable and if his acts did not constitute self-defense, then his conduct could fit within the voluntary-manslaughter definition: "an intentional homicide without malice aforethought in a sudden heat of passion as a result of adequate legal provocation." Kaner, 463 A.2d at 1351. Among the instructions the jurors received were: self-defense, voluntary manslaughter, and murder in the second degree. But the jury returned a verdict of second-degree murder and not of voluntary manslaughter. It also rejected defendant's suggestion of self-defense when it failed to acquit him. As the trial justice said, if defendant had entertained an honestly mistaken belief that lethal force was necessary to defend himself, then defendant would not be guilty of any crime, including criminally negligent involuntary manslaughter. Thus, the trial justice properly gave the self-defense instruction to the jury and not an involuntary-manslaughter charge. And because malice could be inferred from defendant's actions, the trial justice properly instructed the jury on second-degree murder, as well as on self-defense and voluntary manslaughter.
This case is also distinguishable from Robbio, 526 A.2d at 513-14, in which we affirmed a judgment of conviction for involuntary manslaughter after a father killed his daughter as he was "dry-firing" a loaded handgun. In Robbio, even though the defendant intentionally and voluntarily was "dry-firing" his weapon, he did not intend thereby to kill his daughter or anyone else. Id. In that case, there was an intentional and voluntary action ("dry-firing" a weapon), but the resulting consequences of this action, the death of his daughter, were unintentional because the defendant did not intend by his conduct to kill, injure, or harm his child.
In this case, however,
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