Washington v. McKague
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Defendant Jay McKague appealed his conviction for second degree assault, and the Court of Appeals affirmed in a split decision. Defendant shoplifted a can of smoked oysters from a convenience store. The owner followed Defendant out of the store and confronted him in the parking lot. Defendant punched the owner in the head several times and pushed him to the ground, causing the owner's head to strike the pavement. He was diagnosed with a concussion without loss of consciousness, a scalp contusion and lacerations, and head and neck pain. Defendant was charged with first degree robbery, with third degree theft as an inferior offense, and second degree assault predicated on the infliction of substantial bodily injury. At Defendant's request, the court also instructed the jury on third degree assault as an inferior offense of second degree assault. The jury convicted Defendant of third degree theft and second degree assault. The dissent on the appellate panel took issue with the of the sufficiency of the evidence of “substantial bodily harm.” Specifically, the dissent disagreed with the lead opinion’s citation to a dictionary definition of the term “substantial” as including “something having substance or actual existence.” Upon review, the Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals’ holding that substantial evidence supported the conviction, but in doing so the Court disapproved of the definition of “substantial bodily harm” applied by the Court of Appeals majority: "[w]e agree … that the majority applied an erroneous definition of 'substantial,' but we nonetheless affirm McKague’s conviction because the evidence was sufficient to show that [the owner's] injuries were 'substantial' under a
proper definition."
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