Young v. State
Annotate this CaseDefendants were charged with murder as accomplices in a shooting. The State brought no other charges, battery or otherwise. During a bench trial, trial court found that Defendants intended a group beating of the victim but that there was insufficient evidence that they knew a member of their group would shoot the victim. Consequently, the trial court dismissed the murder charge, instead returning a verdict of attempted aggravated battery for planning the beating as a lesser included offense to the murder charge. The Supreme Court reversed, holding (1) attempted aggravated battery by beating was not just a lesser offense than the charged murder by shooting but a completely different offense, based on a completely different “means used” than alleged in the charging informations, and the complete factual divergence here deprived Defendants of “fair notice” of the charge of which they were eventually convicted; and (2) convicting Defendants based on a critical operative fact the State never pleaded constituted fundamental error. Remanded with instructions to enter judgments of acquittal.
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