Petitfrere v. State

Sherly Petitfrere appeals his conviction of manslaughter with a firearm. The question *394presented is whether the trial court properly refused to give an instruction on culpable negligence under section 784.05(1), Florida Statutes (1995). We conclude that the requested instruction was improperly refused, and reverse the conviction.

The shooting arose from a disagreement between Petitfrere and the victim, Bacari Peterson. Peterson believed that Petitfrere had given him a bogus twenty-dollar bill in return for several small bags of marijuana. It was undisputed that a gunshot killed the victim, but…