State v. Stewart

Summary

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court held that aggravated assault and assault are not lesser-included offenses of elevated aggravated assault charged under 17-A M.R.S. § 208-B(1)(B), because the latter provision does not require proof of a culpable mental state. The trial court therefore erred by instructing the jury on those lesser offenses. The court vacated Stewart’s aggravated-assault conviction and remanded for entry of a judgment of acquittal.

Holdings

1. Aggravated assault under section 208(1)(C) and assault under section 207(1)(A) are not lesser-included offenses of elevated aggravated assault under section 208-B(1)(B) because the greater offense does not require proof of a culpable mental state, while the purported lesser offenses require intentional, knowing, or reckless conduct.
2. An erroneous instruction that expands the elements of the charged offense cannot make otherwise nonincluded offenses proper lesser-included offenses.

Questions Presented

1. Whether aggravated assault under 17-A M.R.S. § 208(1)(C) and assault under 17-A M.R.S. § 207(1)(A) are lesser-included offenses of elevated aggravated assault under 17-A M.R.S. § 208-B(1)(B).
2. Whether the trial court's lesser-included-offense instructions were proper when the charged elevated aggravated assault theory required conduct manifesting depraved indifference to the value of human life rather than a culpable mens rea.

Disposition

vacated