2010AP2003 State v. Beamon

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Criminal Procedure
Erroneous jury instructions

When a jury convicts based on a patently erroneous jury instruction that varies from the statutory crime by adding an unnecessary factual finding, the error is subject to harmless error review.

“Turning to the evidence presented at Beamon’s trial, it is clear beyond a reasonable doubt that a rational jury would have found him guilty absent the error. See Harvey, 254 Wis. 2d 442, ¶49 (citing Neder, 527 U.S. at 18). Miller testified that he was in a marked police vehicle when he followed Beamon with both his emergency lights and siren activated. While being pursued, Beamon drove forty-five to fifty miles per hour in a thirty-mile per hour zone, at night, with his lights extinguished. He proceeded through a four-way stop sign without yielding or stopping, and then rolled out of the car at twenty-five miles per hour, leaving the abandoned vehicle to crash into a parked car. Based on this uncontested and overwhelming evidence, any rational trier of fact would have found beyond a reasonable doubt that Beamon operated a vehicle on a highway after receiving both visual and audible signals from a marked police vehicle and willfully disregarded that signal so as to interfere with or endanger the pursuing officer.”

Affirmed.

Recommended for publication in the official reports.

2010AP2003 State v. Beamon

Dist. II, Racine County, Mueller, J., Neubauer, J.

Attorneys: For Appellant: Hintze, Donna L., Madison; For Respondent: Nieskes, Michael E., Racine; Neuser, Mark, Madison

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