State v. Washington

Summary

The court affirmed the defendant’s convictions despite concluding that the trial court improperly instructed the jury on combat by agreement. The court held that the instruction was unsupported by the evidence but harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because the verdict turned on whether the defendant or the victim fired first, rather than on the legal subtleties of self-defense. The court declined to review the defendant’s unpreserved claims concerning postarrest silence and pandemic-related jury deliberations because the record was inadequate, and it rejected the preserved prosecutorial-impropriety claims. No separate opinions were filed.