## Facts

- Dwight Ralph Smallwood learned he was HIV-positive in 1991 and received counseling about transmission risks and safer-sex practices.
- In late September 1993, Smallwood and an accomplice committed three separate gunpoint robberies of three women and sexually assaulted each victim without using condoms.
- During the incidents, the perpetrators used threats of death to control the victims and to deter reporting.
- Smallwood pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree rape and robbery with a deadly weapon for one incident.
- After a bench trial, the court also found him guilty of assault with intent to murder, reckless endangerment, and three counts of attempted second-degree murder (one count per victim).
- On appeal, the intermediate appellate court affirmed, suggesting merger of assault with intent to murder into attempted second-degree murder.
- The state’s highest court granted review limited to whether the evidence was sufficient to prove the specific intent to kill for attempted second-degree murder and assault with intent to murder.

## Issues

1. Whether evidence that an HIV-positive defendant knowingly engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse during armed sexual assaults, without additional proof, permits an inference of specific intent to kill.
2. Whether the “natural and probable consequence” method of proving intent supports attempted murder and assault-with-intent-to-murder convictions on these facts.

## Decision

- The court reversed the convictions for attempted second-degree murder and assault with intent to murder for insufficient evidence of intent to kill.
- The court held that intent to kill could not be inferred solely from exposing the victims to HIV through unprotected intercourse.
- The case was remanded for further proceedings consistent with the decision; other convictions were left undisturbed.

## Legal Principles

- Attempted murder and assault with intent to murder require proof of a specific intent to kill, which may be established by circumstantial evidence.
- An intent to kill may be inferred when the established facts make death a natural and probable result of the defendant’s conduct; mere possibility of death is insufficient.
- Exposure to HIV, standing alone, does not support an inference of intent to kill for attempted murder-type offenses.
- Evidence adequate to show creation of a substantial risk of death or serious injury (supporting reckless endangerment) may still be inadequate to prove a purpose to cause death.

## Conclusion

The court set aside attempted-murder and assault-with-intent-to-murder convictions because the prosecution proved only HIV exposure risk during unprotected sexual assaults, not a specific intent to kill under the natural-and-probable-consequence method of inference.


Smallwood v. State, 343 Md. 97, 680 A.2d 512 (Md. 1996)