State v. Harvey

In State v. Harvey, 193 Ariz. 472, 476,16, 974 P.2d 451, 455 (App. 1998), the defendant was charged with second-degree murder, but was convicted of the lesser-included offense of negligent homicide. 193 Ariz. at 474-75, 974 P.2d at 453-54. One aggravating factor the Harvey court found was that "defendant approached the victim's vehicle when he could have walked away." The court told Harvey that "you approached the vehicle with the loaded gun in the parking lot, that you had plenty of opportunity to walk away from the situation and you decided not to walk away." Instead, Harvey shot the victim in the vehicle. Id. at 474,5, 974 P.2d at 453. On appeal, this court held that the aggravating circumstance was proper because it focused on "the deliberate quality of the killer's actions," and thus, "the degree of misconduct was higher than that requisite to commit the crime." Id. at 475-76,12,16, 974 P.2d at 454-55.