State v. Cameron

After a series of altercations with five men playing cards in a vacant lot, Cameron (defendant) attacked one of them with a broken bottle, seriously injuring his hand. When police arrived, Cameron, who had been drinking wine, threw a bottle at their car, shouted obscenities, and had to be restrained and handcuffed. She was charged with second-degree aggravated assault, possessing the broken bottle with intent to injure, and resisting arrest; at trial she testified she acted in self-defense and was angry that she, rather than the victim, had been arrested. The trial court refused to let the jury consider intoxication as a defense, and Cameron was convicted; the Appellate Division reversed, holding her intoxication defense should have gone to the jury, and the state appealed.