## Facts

- Police officers responded to a report of a domestic dispute at the home of Michael Dennis Loeffel and his girlfriend.
- Loeffel came onto the front porch and threatened to shoot the officers if they tried to enter his home.
- Loeffel’s girlfriend also came onto the porch; officers convinced her to leave the porch area.
- As the girlfriend exited, Loeffel went back inside the house.
- Officers feared Loeffel had gone inside to get a gun.
- Officers kicked open the door to enter the home.
- Inside, officers saw Loeffel holding a loaded rifle; as they entered, Loeffel began raising the rifle toward them.
- The officers fired and shot Loeffel twice.
- The State charged Loeffel with three counts of aggravated assault, one count for each officer.
- At trial, over Loeffel’s objection, the court instructed the jury that aggravated assault could be committed by “recklessly threatening to do bodily injury to another.”
- The jury convicted Loeffel on all three counts, and he appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether Utah’s aggravated assault statute allows conviction based on a reckless mental state, making it proper to instruct the jury that aggravated assault may be committed by “recklessly threatening to do bodily injury to another.”
2. Whether the evidence was sufficient to support aggravated assault convictions under a recklessness theory.

## Decision

- The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed Loeffel’s three convictions for aggravated assault.
- The court held the jury instruction was legally correct because aggravated assault may be committed recklessly under Utah law.
- The court held the evidence permitted a rational jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Loeffel, at minimum, acted recklessly when he threatened the officers and raised a loaded rifle toward them.

## Legal Principles

- Jury-instruction challenges that turn on statutory meaning are reviewed for correctness as questions of law.
- Under Utah’s default culpability rule, when an offense does not specify a culpable mental state and is not a strict-liability crime, the State may prove intent, knowledge, or recklessness to establish criminal responsibility.
- Aggravated assault is an aggravated form of assault; absent statutory language requiring a higher mens rea, the culpability levels that apply to assault may also satisfy aggravated assault.
- In assessing sufficiency of the evidence, an appellate court views the evidence and reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the verdict and will affirm if a reasonable jury could find each element proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed Loeffel’s aggravated assault convictions, concluding that Utah law permits aggravated assault to be committed with a reckless mental state and that the evidence—Loeffel’s threats to shoot the officers and his act of raising a loaded rifle as officers entered—supported the jury’s findings under that standard.


State v. Loeffel, 300 P.3d 336 (2013)