United States v. Houser

Donald Houser (defendant), after drinking heavily for five hours, got into an escalating series of fights at a bar over Angela LaSarte, with whom he had dated on and off. After the fighting moved outside and most spectators went back in, Houser retrieved a gun from his truck and shot and killed LaSarte, claiming he only meant to ward off onlookers and that the gun fired accidentally when she tried to grab it. The trial judge instructed the jury it could convict Houser of second-degree murder if it found he acted either deliberately and intentionally or recklessly with extreme disregard for human life, and the jury convicted him; Houser appealed, arguing the extreme-disregard standard required proof he endangered the public at large, not just LaSarte.