Gargus v. State

COBB, Judge.

Doyce Wade Gargus was convicted of reckless manslaughter, a violation of § 13A-6-3, Ala.Code 1975. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. On appeal, Gargus contends that the trial court erred when it refused to instruct the jury as to the lesser-included offense of criminally negligent homicide.

The State presented the following evidence at trial. On Thanksgiving night, November 28, 1996, Gargus and Michael Workman, Gargus’s cousin, played a couple of games of pool in a utility building behind Gargus’s house. Gargus’s wife, Kandice Gargus, and Kandice’s cousin, Heather Danielle…