Garcia v. Commonwealth,
2012-SC-01020, Not Published; Affirmed in Part; Reversed in Part
A complicity instruction which
read that the jury could find Brittney Garcia guilty of Manslaughter Second
degree if she possessed the same mens rea as her co-defendant was improper. The
instruction should have told the jury to find a mens rea for Garcia of the kind
of culpability required for a Manslaughter Second conviction. ON retrial, the
combination principal-accomplice instruction should read, in part:
That at the time
Angel Tucker was killed, Defendant (Garcia) intentionally breached her legal
duty to protect Angel Tucker by failing to prevent Nickolas Staples’ use of the
blunt force which killed Angel Tucker;
(4) That, regardless
of whether Defendant (Garcia) intended for Angel to be killed, she at least
intended that Nickolas Staples seriously physically injure her…
Roy Durham of
the Appeals Branch represented Ms. Garcia on appeal.
Contributed by Julia Pearson
