People v. Riddle

649 N.W.2d 30 (2002)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D and two friends, Carter and Billingsley, convened at D's home. The three men were in the backyard just outside D's house, in the driveway near a detached garage, when D shot Carter in the legs eleven times with an automatic carbine rifle. After shooting Carter, D immediately drove to the Detroit River, where he disposed of the rifle. Carter, who did not have a weapon in his possession, was resuscitated at the scene but died as a result of the gunshot wounds three days later. Billingsley testified for the prosecution that after Carter made a disparaging comment about D's fiancee, D went into the house, came back outside armed with a rifle, and began firing at Carter. Billingsley stated that Carter was not armed and did not approach D when he came out of the house with the weapon. D was charged with first-degree murder. D testified that he intervened in an argument between Carter and Billingsley and that he told Carter, whom he considered to be 'the more aggressive one,' to leave. Seeing a 'dark object' in Carter's hand and believing it to be a gun, D immediately reached for his rifle, which he testified was in his detached garage. D stated that he aimed the rifle at Carter's legs and pulled the trigger, intending only to scare him. D requested that the jury be instructed that there is no duty to retreat in one's own home before exercising self-defense. P objected because the shooting took place outside the home, in the curtilage. The court rule that the instruction was not appropriate under the circumstances of the case. The court instructed the jury as follows: By law, a person must avoid using deadly force if he can safely do so. If the defendant could have safely retreated but did not do so, you can consider that fact along with all the other circumstances when you decide whether he went farther in protecting himself than he should have. However, if the defendant honestly and reasonably believed that it was immediately necessary to use deadly force to protect himself from an [imminent] threat of death or serious injury, the law does not require him to retreat. He may stand his ground and use the amount of force he believes necessary to protect himself. D was found guilty of second-degree murder and guilty as charged with felony firearm. D appealed. Because the shooting occurred within the curtilage but not in an inhabited outbuilding, the panel opined, the trial court properly refused to instruct the jury that D had no duty to retreat. D appealed.