Curtis v. State

The trial court erred in failing to charge the jury on the lesser-included offense of false imprisonment.

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Following a jury trial, Korey Bernard Curtis was convicted of aggravated assault with intent to murder; kidnapping with bodily injury; aggravated battery; and hindering a person making an emergency telephone call. Curtis argues on appeal that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions and that the trial court erred in denying his request to charge the jury on false imprisonment as a lesser-included offense of kidnapping. We find the evidence sufficient to sustain Curtis’s convictions, but are nonetheless constrained to hold that the trial court erred in failing to charge the jury on the lesser-included offense of false imprisonment. Because we cannot say that this error was harmless as a matter of law, we must reverse Curtis’s kidnapping conviction. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s guilty verdict,1 the evidence shows that on the morning of March 7, 2008, the victim, Curtis’s girlfriend, was ill and had been directed by her supervisor to stay home from work. As she retreated to her bedroom to take some medicine, Curtis, apparently suspicious of her motives for remaining home, followed her into the bedroom and stated, “You’re going to die today, you don’t need your medicine.” Curtis then balled up his fist and punched the victim in the face. After the victim hit Curtis back, Curtis struck her on the head with a heavy metal ashtray, breaking the skin on her scalp. Curtis, who was wearing boots, then unleashed on the victim a brutally violent attack, during which he repeatedly punched and kicked her face, head, and body. Curtis also choked the victim while saying, “I should kill you.”

The victim eventually managed to break free from Curtis and ran out of the bedroom, through the house, and out the front door, screaming for someone to help her. Curtis caught the victim as she was attempting to escape, however, and drug her back inside of the house by her hair. In the process of dragging her, Curtis scraped the skin off the victim’s knees.

Curtis v. State

The trial court erred in failing to charge the jury on the lesser-included offense of false imprisonment.

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