Chang

INTRODUCTION

Defendant Marvin Joseph Chang was convicted in July 2024 of a litany of charges stemming from a police chase and gun battle with officers outside of Three Rivers. Defendant suffered from delusions that he was being pursued by CIA agents who intended to harm or kill him. The sole issue on appeal here is whether the trial court should have provided an instruction on imperfect self-defense during the guilt phase of the trial to permit defendant to argue that his belief in the necessity of self-defense was honest, if not reasonable. The court denied this instruction, citing People v. Elmore (2014) 59 Cal.4th 121 (Elmore). Elmore stands for the proposition that imperfect self- defense may not be invoked by one who is operating entirely under the influence of a delusion, without an “objective correlate.” (Id. at pp. 136–137.) We find the mere presence of a peace officer cannot be such an objective correlate. The objective correlate must at least conceivably relate to a reasonable need for self-defense. Imperfect self- defense is a species of mistake of fact, where a person may hold the actual, if unreasonable, belief that self-defense is necessary. A pure delusion is not a…