People v. Van Fossan

A jury convicted Benjamin Howard Van Fossan of first degree murder, during which he used a knife. He was sentenced to prison and appeals claiming evidence was improperly excluded and admitted at trial, prosecutorial misconduct occurred and the jury was misinstructed. We reject his contentions and affirm.

Facts

For about two weeks, the victim, his roommate, Van Fossan, and the latter’s girlfriend shared an unfinished garage converted into a room which was attached to an acquaintance’s home. Van Fossan felt that his girlfriend was acting “flirty” and ignoring him during the time they stayed with the victim and he asked the roommate if she believed the victim would “mess around with” the girlfriend.

Near the end of that period, on December 6, 1990, the victim and his roommate were present when Van Fossan and his girlfriend got into a verbal and physical altercation. The victim and the roommate told Van Fossan to leave his girlfriend alone, so he went outside and spent some time in his car before returning to the room.

Everything seemed to go well the following day until that evening, when the roommate awoke to another argument between Van Fossan and his girlfriend over…