State v. Blue

PARKER, Justice.

Defendant was charged with second-degree murder for the stabbing death of James Hilton on 10 July 1998. A jury found defendant guilty of voluntary manslaughter, and the trial court sentenced defendant to a term of 77 to 102 months’ imprisonment. In a split decision, the Court of Appeals’ majority found no error. Defendant appealed to this Court based on the dissenting opinion; and for the reasons stated herein, we reverse the Court of Appeals and remand for a new trial.

For ease of presentation we address defendant’s evidence first. At trial defendant’s evidence tended to show…