United States v. Joyce Lee Flores

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

A federal jury found defendant-appellant Joyce Lee Flores guilty on a charge of assaulting a flight attendant and interfering with the performance of the attendant’s duties in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 1472(j) (1988). Flores assigns error to the trial court’s refusal to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of simple assault aboard an aircraft, 49 U.S.C. § 1472(k)(1) (1988). We sustain her appeal. 1

I

A defendant is entitled to a jury instruction on her theory of the case so long as the theory itself is a cognizable one and the evidence of record, taken in the…