State v. Carter

Summary

The court held that whether the air gun qualified as a deadly weapon under the governing statute was a legal question subject to de novo review because the relevant operational facts were undisputed. The statute requires a weapon to be readily capable of discharging a shot at the time of the crime, and the taped-off air gun did not satisfy that requirement. Because the jury was permitted to rely on an legally inadequate deadly-weapon theory, the convictions could not be sustained under the general verdict rule and were reversed for a new trial.