People v. Reed CA4/1

INTRODUCTION

A jury convicted Tyrone Eugene Reed of mayhem, inflicting corporal injury on a current or former significant other, first degree burglary, interfering with the use of a wireless device, battery, and felony vandalism. The charges stemmed from physical violence perpetrated by Reed against the mother of his child, and Reed’s conduct surrounding his arrest. Following his conviction, the trial court sentenced him to 20 years in state prison. Reed appeals from the judgment and asserts several claims of instructional error. First, he argues the trial court failed to properly instruct the jury as to the elements of mayhem. Next, Reed contends the court should have provided a pinpoint instruction related to his defense to the burglary charge, and his counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to request this instruction. Finally, he makes several claims of error pertaining to the vandalism instructions, including: the jury instructions permitted the jury to aggregate the amount of damage from separate incidents of vandalism; the court should have instructed the jury on the lesser included offense of misdemeanor vandalism; and the court failed to provide a unanimity…