State v. Montague

BRANCH, Chief Justice.

Defendant first assigns as error the failure of the trial judge to charge on self-defense.

The court is required to charge on all substantial and essential features of a case which arise upon the evidence, even absent a special request for the instruction. When supported by the evidence, self-defense is a substantial and essential feature of a criminal case. State v. Deck, 285 N.C. 209, 203 S.E. 2d 830 (1974). Therefore, the answer to this assignment of error lies in whether there was sufficient evidence to support an instruction on self-defense. In resolving this…