## Facts

- A 15-year-old defendant spent the night at a friend’s trailer home; the boys stayed up late playing video games.
- Early the next morning, the defendant told the friend’s mother that the friend tried to stab him and that he stabbed the friend back and thought he might be dead.
- The mother found the friend dead on the floor with a bloody butcher knife nearby; paramedics pronounced death at the scene.
- Police found bloodstained blankets rolled up in the front room and a gym bag with bloody socks in the friend’s bedroom.
- The medical examiner reported 39 stab wounds, including a fatal neck wound to the carotid artery, and indicated at least some wounds were likely inflicted with an instrument other than the recovered butcher knife; that other instrument was never found.
- The defendant claimed the friend initiated the confrontation with a kitchen knife after becoming angry, cut the defendant’s hands, and the stabbing occurred during a struggle.
- The defendant was charged with murder and tampering with evidence, tried as an adult, and convicted by a jury of both offenses.

## Issues

1. Whether the trial court plainly erred by instructing the jury it could consider manslaughter only if it first found the evidence failed to prove one or more elements of murder, thereby restricting consideration of extreme emotional distress (EED) manslaughter.
2. Whether the instructional error was harmful under plain-error review, requiring reversal of the murder conviction.
3. Whether the tampering-with-evidence conviction should be disturbed based on the record and alleged trial errors.

## Decision

- The court held the “order of deliberation” instruction was erroneous because it both (i) mandated a sequential approach to lesser-included offenses and (ii) prevented the jury from considering EED manslaughter even if it found all elements of murder proved.
- Applying plain-error review, the court found the error obvious under Utah law and harmful because it reasonably likely affected the verdict.
- The court reversed the murder conviction and remanded for a new trial on that count.
- The court affirmed the tampering-with-evidence conviction.

## Legal Principles

- EED manslaughter is available as a lesser-included offense that can reduce what would otherwise be murder; it may apply even when the elements of murder are established.
- When evidence reasonably supports EED manslaughter, the defendant is entitled to an instruction that permits the jury to return an EED manslaughter verdict without first finding a failure of proof on murder’s elements.
- Trial courts may not require a rigid, sequential “greater-offense first, lesser-offense only upon element failure” deliberation structure where the lesser offense operates by reducing culpability rather than negating an element of the greater offense.
- Plain error requires (1) error, (2) obviousness, and (3) prejudice shown by a reasonable likelihood of a more favorable outcome absent the error; misleading lesser-included-offense instructions can satisfy this standard.

## Conclusion

The court ordered a new trial on the murder charge because the jury instruction improperly barred consideration of EED manslaughter unless murder’s elements were not proved, constituting obvious and prejudicial plain error, while leaving the tampering conviction intact.


State v. Shumway, 63 P.3d 94 (Utah 2002)