United States v. Nathan Manuelito

MEMORANDUM

Defendant-Appellant Nathan Brooks Manuelito appeals his conviction for intentional and reckless assault, resulting in serious bodily injury. As the facts and procedural history are familiar to the parties, we do not recite them here except as necessary to explain our disposition. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We affirm.

Manuelito argues that the self-defense jury instruction was erroneous because it did not explicitly state that the government has the burden of disproving each of the three elements of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt. The government first contends that Manuelito waived this argument under the “invited error” doctrine because he requested the model jury instruction that the court provided to the jury. See United States v. Guthrie, 931 F.2d 564, 567 (9th Cir.1991) (“When the defendant himself proposes the jury instruction he later attacks on appeal, review is denied under the ‘invited error’ doctrine.”). We disagree. The invited error doctrine only applies if the defendant was aware that he was relinquishing a known right. See United States v. Romm, 455 F.3d 990, 1004 n. 17 (9th Cir.2006). There is no evidence in the record that…