Reference no: EM133942496

Question

Defendant John Martin Sandoval is an alcoholic. He started drinking while watching a football game, and after a 12-pack of beer, he walked to a bar and drank an additional beer. He does not remember leaving the bar or any other location until he awoke in jail later in the day for first-degree burglary. Sandoval was found to have walked to a stranger's home at 3:20 a.m. and kicked in the front door of the home of Christensen, a reserve deputy with the police for 12 years. Christensen demanded to know what Sandoval was "doing in my house." Sandoval responded, "Who are you?" and shoved Christensen in the chest, knocking him back a few feet. Christensen then punched Sandoval in the head, wrestled him to the floor, and held him down until the police arrived. The Washington burglary statute declares that it is burglary in the first degree if, "with the intent to commit a crime against a person or property therein," an individual "enters or remains unlawfully in a building" and if, while entering, "[t]he actor . . . assaults any person." Sandoval and Christensen had never met. Sandoval did not have burglary tools or take any of Christensen's property. A Washington appellate court reversed Sandoval's conviction. How would you rule?