Is a defendant entitled to an instruction that disarming someone does not constitute robbery?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Mixon, B229727 (Cal. App. 2012):

Appellant's reliance on People v. Long (1944) 65 Cal.App.2d 241 is misplaced. In that case, the court held the defendant was not entitled to an instruction that taking a knife for the purpose of disarming someone did not constitute robbery. (Id. at p. 244.) The court rejected the instruction finding it confusing. While Long focused on the facts before it, the court never held that such an instruction would be proper under any scenario, and appellant cites no case that supports his view that disarming a person is inconsistent with robbery. Moreover, while appellant testified to his intent to disarm Q.J. in the defense case, at the time he made the section 1118.1 motion there was no evidence that appellant intended only to disarm Q.J. and the trier of fact was not required to necessarily conclude appellant's intent was to temporarily deprive Q.J. of his property.

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