Wyatt

While in defendant’s care, defendant’s young son died of shock and hemorrhage due to blunt force trauma. A jury convicted defendant of involuntary manslaughter (Pen. Code, 1 § 192, subd. (b)) and assault on a child causing death (§ 273ab). As relevant here, the Court of Appeal reversed the section 273ab conviction upon finding the trial court erroneously failed to instruct the jury, sua sponte, on simple assault as a lesser included offense. We conclude there was no error. We therefore reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal and remand with directions to reinstate the conviction.

Factual and Procedural Background

In May 2003, defendant Reginald Wyatt was living with Tiffany Blake and their infant daughter, Valerie. Defendant also had a 14-month-old son, *697 Reginald Wyatt, Jr. (Reginald), from a previous relationship. On the morning of May 18, 2003, Reginald stopped breathing while in defendant’s care. He was rushed to the hospital, but could not be revived. Although the treating doctor saw no signs of significant injury on the body, the autopsy disclosed that Reginald died of shock and hemorrhage due to blunt force trauma to the chest and abdomen.

An information…

This case is before us the second time. To explain why I am writing separately, some background information may be helpful.

In the earlier decision, People v. Wyatt (2010) 48 Cal.4th 776 [ 108 Cal.Rptr.3d 259 , 229 P.3d 156 ] (Wyatt I), the issue involved the sufficiency of the evidence supporting defendant’s conviction for assault on a child resulting in death (hereafter also referred to as child abuse homicide), a crime set forth in Penal Code section 273ab. That statute states: “Any person, having the care or custody of a child who is under eight years of age, who assaults the child by means of force that to a reasonable person would be likely to produce great bodily injury, resulting in the child’s death, shall be punished by imprisonment ... for 25 years to life.” (Id., subd. (a), italics added.) In concluding that, contrary to the Court of Appeal’s decision, the evidence against defendant met Penal Code section 273ab’s requirements, Wyatt I relied on the definition of assault that a majority of this court had adopted in People v. Williams (2001) 26 Cal.4th 779 [ 111 Cal.Rptr.2d 114 , 29 P.3d 197 ] (Williams). (Wyatt I, supra, at pp. 780-781.)

Williams described the mental…

DISCUSSION

The Court of Appeal relied on People v. Basuta (2001) 94 Cal.App.4th 370 for the proposition that simple assault (§ 240) is a lesser included offense of child assault homicide (§ 273ab). The People do not contest this holding, so we proceed to the inquiry at hand. Given the evidence at trial, did the trial court prejudicially err in failing to instruct the jury sua sponte on simple assault? The legal principles governing our analysis are settled. “In criminal cases, even absent a request, a trial court must instruct on the general principles of law relevant to the issues the evidence raises. [Citation.] „ “That obligation has been held to include giving instructions on lesser included offenses when the evidence raises a question as to whether all of the elements of the charged offense were present [citation], but not when there is no evidence that the offense was less than that charged. [Citations.]” ‟ [Citation.] „[T]he existence of “any evidence, no matter how weak” will not justify instructions on a lesser included offense, but such instructions are required whenever evidence that the defendant is guilty only of the lesser offense is “substantial enough to merit…