State v. Mayo

113 A.3d 250 (N.H. 2015)

Purchase the Printed Copy at bsmsphd.com

Nature of the Case

To access this section all you need to do is click here and register.

Facts

D and his cousin, Daniel Mayo, were at a restaurant and bar. They left and went their separate ways, with plans to meet later at another area restaurant. The victim and his friends were also at The Page that night. The victim, Zachary Green, had consumed three alcoholic beverages earlier in the day but did not drink anymore that evening. Most of the victim's friends had consumed alcohol throughout the evening, to the point of intoxication. Just closing the bouncers began moving patrons outside into the adjacent alleyway known as the Vaughan Mall. D testified that he was walking through the Mall just as the victim and his friends were leaving. Donahue testified that “small scuffles started to break out,” and he was hit in the head and kicked in the leg. He turned around and “saw a bunch of angry faces and people ready to fight.” Donahue saw Paris get punched in the side of the head and Losik get knocked to the ground. Paris tried to de-escalate the situation by standing in front of a man but got punched in the face. The victim then came over to Paris and held his hands up, saying “whoa, whoa, whoa,” at which point another man kicked the victim in the face. The victim started to walk through the Mall toward the parking lot. Two men appeared to be mad, and so the victim “immediately tried to get [Yitts] to go walk away.” He told Yitts that they were not going to fight. The victim then turned back around and “scolded” the two men and the next thing he remembered was waking up in the hospital. D testified that as he was walking through the Mall, he heard the word “nigger.” He noticed his cousin and a group of individuals. As he got closer, “something happened, and people just kind of converged on [his cousin],” “limbs were flying,” and his cousin was “physically assaulted.” Hearing people yell racial slurs and seeing the group of individuals converge on his cousin made him believe that his “cousin was in danger at that time.” D noticed the victim approaching from his right “fairly quickly” and assumed that he was going after his cousin. D responded by kicking the victim. The victim was immediately rendered unconscious and fell, hitting his head on the pavement. The victim was diagnosed with a concussion, a skull fracture, and an inter-cranial hemorrhage. D was arrested and charged. D claimed that he acted in defense of his cousin. D was convicted and appealed.