State v. Shorter
Annotate this CaseFour defendants, including Kent Tyler and James Shorter, were charged with murder in connection with the death of Richard Daughenbaugh. Tyler was convicted of second-degree murder. In State v. Tyler, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded, concluding that the evidence in Tyler’s case did not support the trial court’s instruction on joint criminal conduct. In this case, as in Tyler, a jury convicted Shorter of second-degree murder. Relying on Tyler, the court of appeals reversed, concluding that although there was sufficient evidence to support the conviction on the ground that Shorter was a principal in the murder or aided and abetted the murder, there was insufficient evidence to support the joint criminal conduct instruction. The Supreme Court vacated the judgment of the court of appeals and affirmed Shorter’s conviction, holding that even if the joint criminal conduct instruction was erroneously given, reversal was not required under the facts of this case.
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