State of North Dakota v. De’Jonte Lavon Smith

Summary

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed De’Jonte Lavon Smith’s conviction for reckless endangerment, holding that any error concerning the self-defense instruction was invited or waived. The court reversed his felony conviction for tampering with physical evidence because the jury was not instructed on the essential felony-level element requiring substantial obstruction, impairment, or perversion of felony prosecution. The court remanded for entry of a judgment of acquittal on the tampering charge.

Holdings

1. Smith could not obtain reversal based on the omission of the self-defense language from the reckless-endangerment instruction because he requested the instruction that was given and neither objected nor requested the additional language. The alleged instructional error was therefore waived or invited.
2. The jury instruction for felony tampering with physical evidence was erroneous because it did not require the jury to find that Smith substantially obstructed, impaired, or perverted prosecution for a felony.
3. The omission of the felony-level tampering element was an obvious error affecting Smith's substantial rights because the jury did not find every element of the charged felony beyond a reasonable doubt.
4. The felony tampering conviction had to be reversed and the case remanded for entry of a judgment of acquittal because, on the trial record, no rational jury could have found that Smith substantially obstructed, impaired, or perverted prosecution for a felony.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the district court committed reversible error by failing to include the nonexistence of self-defense as an essential element in the reckless-endangerment jury instruction.
2. Whether the district court committed obvious error by failing to instruct the jury that felony tampering with physical evidence requires proof that the defendant substantially obstructed, impaired, or perverted prosecution for a felony.
3. Whether the appropriate remedy for the deficient felony-tampering instruction was entry of a judgment of acquittal because the evidence was insufficient for a rational jury to find the omitted felony-level element.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded