State v. Baez

Summary

The court affirmed the defendant’s murder conviction, concluding that the evidence was sufficient for the jury to reject his self-defense claim beyond a reasonable doubt. The court also held that the unpreserved challenges to the intent instructions did not satisfy the plain-error standard because the instructions, read as a whole, adequately conveyed the state’s burden and did not reasonably mislead the jury. The court declined to disturb the conviction despite finding the proximate-cause instruction improper and the omission of a stand-alone general-intent instruction.