State v. Bolio

Defendant was convicted of aggravated assault (13 V.S.A. § 1024(a)(2)) and appeals on grounds that the trial court should have given the jury an instruction on simple assault under 13 V.S.A. § 1023(a)(1). We reverse.

The basic facts are not in dispute. Defendant was charged with shooting Todd Gorton, after receiving a telephone call from her husband David Bolio, then incarcerated at the Chittenden Correctional Center, that Gorton, with whom defendant was then living, had sexually abused the Bolios’ son. Defendant testified that upon receiving this report, she became extremely distraught, began…