State of Washington v. Michael James McNearney

¶1 — Michael McNearney appeals his convictions for second degree theft by deception and fourth degree assault with sexual motivation. For the first time on appeal, he argues that because the State presented evidence of two assaults without electing the one on which it relied for its charge, the trial court erred in failing to provide the jury with a Petrich1 instruction. He also contends the prosecuting attorney committed misconduct in closing argument by trivializing the State’s burden of proof.

¶2 In the published portion of this opinion, we address the assignment of error for failure to…