State v. Draves

Defendant was convicted of murder and on appeal asserts that the trial court should have instructed the jury on the effect of circumstantial evidence in the specific terms defendant requested, and that the trial court should not have instructed the jury on both the elements of intentional murder, ORS 163.115 (l)(a), and reckless murder, ORS 163.115 (1) (b).

The facts developed during defendant’s lengthy trial are rather complex. The events that culminated in the homicide occurred around a house in Springfield owned by the victim, George Puls. Leonard Nicola, Puls’s brother-in-law, lived with…