State v. Roper

ERWIN, Judge.

Defendant’s sole assignment of error is that the trial judge failed to charge the jury on the lesser included offense of assault inflicting serious injury. He argues that whether the knife used here was a deadly weapon should have been a jury question. We do not agree.

The description of the knife in this case was given by the victim: “a keen bladed knife or slick bladed knife” and “[defendant] cut me with a pocket knife.” The State argues that this is sufficient to require the court to find that the knife was a deadly weapon per se.

Whether a weapon is deadly is generally a…