State v. Mark A. Hallenbeck

Summary

The court affirmed Hallenbeck's manslaughter conviction and sentence after concluding that his preserved challenges to the jury instructions, judgment of acquittal, new-trial ruling, evidentiary rulings, and sentence lacked merit or were not properly before the court. The court held that the jury instructions adequately addressed accident, self-defense, and manslaughter, that the evidence supported the verdict, and that the trial justice properly exercised discretion concerning the victim's criminal record and the crime-scene photograph. The court also declined to review the sentence-reduction ruling because Hallenbeck had not filed a notice of appeal from that ruling.