State v. Carter

Summary

The court held that whether the air gun was a deadly weapon under the governing statute presented a legal question subject to de novo review because the relevant operational facts were undisputed and the dispute concerned statutory meaning. 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 erroneous deadly-weapon theory, the general verdict rule could not preserve the convictions, so the judgment was reversed and a new trial ordered.