State v. Nelson

284 So.3d 711 (2019)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D was celebrating his younger brother's graduation at his mother's house. D's mother, Chiquita, two sisters, and his mother's boyfriend, Willie Hood, Jr., attended the party. Everyone had been drinking at the party, including Hood, who was intoxicated. D and Hood had argued over the keys to Hood's car, which was parked in the driveway. D was attempting to stop Hood from driving. Hood told D that D could have Hood's car because he could get another one. D took the keys to Hood's car out of the vehicle and held them. Hood then started walking up the street. He returned and D stated that he placed the keys in Hood's hand. D called his friend Smiley for a ride. Smiley pulled up in a white Dodge Charger. D walked back to tell his mother that he was leaving; Asia, D's mother, and Hood were arguing. Hood was 'jumping around talking loud' and tried to break the driver's side window of his car with his bare fist. Hood ended up breaking a wind guard on the vehicle. He also grabbed a beer bottle and threw it in D's direction; the bottle glanced off D's shoulder and burst against the rear window of Hood's car. Hood was hitting his car with a beer bottle, which shattered on Hood's vehicle, and 'some of the glass got on' D, upsetting him. D reached into the Charger and withdrew a black handgun from the passenger seat. He held the gun in his right hand, fired two shots into the air, and told Hood to 'chill out' because he was not trying to hurt him. Hood then walked up to him, and they began to wrestle. The 'gun went off' when they fell back onto the hood of the car. The cause of Hood's death was a gunshot wound to the head. Asia and Davis testified that D threw the gun over a fence. Officer Harris later recovered the gun on the other side of the fence that bordered an adjacent lot. D was indicted for murder. The court instructed the jury on first-degree murder, second-degree murder, misdemeanor manslaughter, heat-of-passion manslaughter, culpable-negligence manslaughter, accident, and self-defense. D requested that the jury also be instructed on imperfect self-defense. While the trial court originally granted an imperfect self-defense instruction, it later withdrew the instruction and refused it. D was convicted of first-degree murder. D appealed. The Court of Appeals held that the evidence was sufficient to sustain a first-degree murder conviction, but it reversed due to the trial court's refusal of the imperfect self-defense instruction and remanded the case for a new trial. P appealed.