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Criminal Law Keyed to Ohlin
State v. Sexton
Citation:
733 A.2d 1125 (1999)Facts
On May 10, 1994, the defendant was arguing with Matthews. A witness saw a gun in the defendant’s hand and overheard Matthews telling the defendant that there were no bullets in that gun. Defendant called Matthews back and said, “you think there are no bullets in this gun?” Matthews replied, “yeah,” and the defendant shot the gun. A single bullet killed Matthews. The defendant’s version of the story was that Matthews showed him a gun and told him it was empty. The defendant then took the gun and while looking at it, it went off and shot Matthews. He stated that he had never before owned or shot a gun.
The defendant was charged with reckless manslaughter, among other things. At trial, experts agreed that because of a missing spring from the gun, it was “probably a possible assumption” that the gun was unloaded. The jury found him guilty.
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