People v. Jones

Citations

• 2018 COA 112
• 434 P.3d 760

Syllabus

Late one night Jones opened the unlocked door of an apartment located in a large, gated apartment complex. He turned on the hall light and walked into one of the bedrooms. The apartment was occupied by two brothers and their two cousins (the homeowners). Jones and the homeowners had never met each other. Jones and the occupants fought until Jones was finally subdued. At trial, Jones argued that he had entered the apartment by mistake, and when the homeowners used force against him, he justifiably defended himself using the knife he carried for protection. A jury convicted Jones of one count of second degree assault and one count of third degree assault. On appeal, Jones contended that the trial court erred in instructing the jury that the make-my-day statute is triggered upon any unlawful entry into a dwelling, rather than upon a \knowingly\ unlawful entry, and as a result the erroneous make-my-day instruction negated his otherwise valid claim of self-defense. When the make-my-day statute applies it operates as a bar to a trespasser's claim of self-defense, so if it applied here, Jones would not be justified in using physical force against the homeowners. An instruction clarifying the meaning of \unlawful entry\ is necessary where the evidence supports a theory that the defendant accidentally entered the dwelling or otherwise entered without the requisite mental state. Here, the court erred in failing to instruct the jury that the make-my-day statute's unlawful entry element requires that the unlawful entry be made knowingly. Additionally, the instructional error was not harmless. The evidence supported Jones's theory that he entered the apartment accidentally under the mistaken belief that he was entering the apartment of his cousin, who lived in the complex. Therefore, the language of the make-my-day instruction improperly abridged Jones's claim of self-defense and created a reasonable probability that the jury could have been misled in reaching a verdict. The jud