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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">HOMICIDE—M</span></b><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">URDER BY
</span></b><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">A</span></b><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">BUSE</span></b><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">:
In a prosecution for murder by abuse under<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">ORS 163.115(1)(c), the term “physical disability,” for purposes of the definition of<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">“dependent person” in ORS 163.205(2)(b), need not be a permanent disability; the only<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">requirement is that the disability rendered the person “dependent on another” for some<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">period of time.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><i><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">State v. Fitzhugh,
</span></i></b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">260 Or App __, __ P3d __ (December 26, 2013) (Clatsop)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">(AAIC Jamie Contreras). Defendant was charged with murder by abuse of a “dependent<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">person,” ORS 163.115(1)(c), and the case was tried on stipulated facts. The facts showed that he<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">brutally assaulted the victim, ,his girlfriend with whom he lived, causing her severe injuries that<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">left her entirely dependent on him for her basic needs for at least two days; his neglect of her<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">ultimately resulted in her death. He argued that those facts did not prove, as a matter of law, that<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">the victim had a “physical disability,” within the meaning of the definition of “dependent<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">person” in ORS 163.205(2)(b), at the time of her death. He argued that the victim was not a<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">dependent person within the meaning of the law, based on his claim that the legislature<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">contemplated that “physical disability” refer only to disabilities that are
<i>permanent</i>. The trial<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">court (Judge Philip Nelson) denied defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal, and found him<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">guilty.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">Held</span></i><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">: Affirmed (Hadlock, J.). The
trial court correctly denied the motion for judgment of<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">acquittal. [1] “The term ‘physical disability is not limited to disabilities that are permanent or<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">enduring. Rather, the only temporal constraint in the definition of ‘dependent person’ is in the<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">requirement that the person’s mental or physical disability have rendered the person ‘dependent<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">upon another’ for some period of time.” [2] “In this case, a factfinder could infer from the<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">stipulated facts that the victim had a physical disability that left her completely reliant on<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">defendant for a period of at least two days before she died. Such a finding would establish that<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">the victim was a ‘dependent person’ during that period of time.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:blue">http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/docs/A149719.pdf<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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