People v. Banks CA4/1

I. INTRODUCTION

Kevin Tyrone Banks appeals his assault with a deadly weapon conviction, contending insufficient evidence supported the charge and that the court incorrectly instructed the jury on self-defense during mutual combat. Finding substantial evidence of deadly weapon use and no error in the instructions, we affirm the conviction.

II. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On October 22, 2021, Banks and Halbert Braley got into a fight, during which Braley sustained various serious lacerations to his left arm and leg. Responding officers applied tourniquets to those limbs and identified his injuries as consistent with knife wounds. In surveillance footage capturing the incident, Braley is heard three times saying, “[w]hy’d you stab me, Kev?” Braley’s girlfriend, Cynthia Ellis, is also heard in the footage multiple times asking, “[w]hy did you stab him?” When she called 911, Ms. Ellis reported the event as a stabbing. An ambulance transported Braley to the hospital, where staff described his injuries as “stab wounds” caused by a “machete-type knife.” Braley’s left arm suffered a brachial artery laceration, transections of his radial and ulnar nerves and biceps and triceps…