State v. Adams

623 A.2d 42 (1993)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D resided with his father and his aunt in a first-floor apartment. D and Sherman Sims approached Roberts who lived on the second floor of the same house and asked him for a gun. Roberts gave D a .38 caliber handgun. Sims and D then called for a taxicab to pick them up at 2:48 in the morning. The cab company dispatched a cab operated by the victim, Allen Hansen. When the cab arrived, Sims sat in the back seat behind Allen. As Allen drove Sims ordered him to pull over and then after he complied Sims placed the gun at Allen's neck and fired it. Sims suffered a bullet wound to his left pinkie finger. Sims and D then pulled Allen from the cab and took both his wallets. Allen died almost immediately after the shooting. Sims and D then walked back to their apartment. Roberts heard about the shooting and had asked D if he knew anything about it. Later that day D asked his father to dispose of the gun. D's father then got a friend to drive them to a river and D's father threw the gun in the river. The police got the gun from the river with the help of D's father and also found a jacket owned by D with blood on it. D was tried, and his defense was based on the theory of his lack of criminal intent. D claimed that when Sims pulled out the gun, that he left the cab through the right rear door and ran away. D claimed he had never seen the gun before and he had no idea that Sims planned to rob anyone. D claims that he heard a gunshot about 1.5 blocks away from the cab. D asked for a charge of the defense of renunciation, but that trial court denied. D was convicted and appealed.