State v. Brookwell

270                September 25, 2024             No. 689

   This is a nonprecedential memorandum opinion
    pursuant to ORAP 10.30 and may not be cited
         except as provided in ORAP 10.30(1).

         IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE
                 STATE OF OREGON

                  STATE OF OREGON,
                  Plaintiff-Respondent,
                            v.
               NATALIE J. BROOKWELL,
                  Defendant-Appellant.
                Coos County Circuit Court
                  22CR49058; A181049

  Richard L. Barron, Senior Judge.
  Submitted August 29, 2024.
   Ernest G. Lannet, Chief Defender, Criminal Appellate
Section, and Marc D. Brown, Deputy Public Defender, Office
of Public Defense Services, filed the brief for appellant.
   Ellen F. Rosenblum, Attorney General, Benjamin Gutman,
Solicitor General, and Emily N. Snook, Assistant Attorney
General, filed the brief for respondent.
  Before Tookey, Presiding Judge, Egan, Judge, and Kamins,
Judge.
  KAMINS, J.
  Affirmed.
Nonprecedential Memo Op: 

 (2024)                         271

          KAMINS, J.
          Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for
second-degree assault, ORS 163.175,1 assigning error to
the trial court’s ruling denying her motion for a judgment
of acquittal as to the element of physical injury. Defendant
committed the assault by stabbing her landlord with a
knife after he demanded unpaid rent, causing a quarter- to
half-inch wide cut that was closed with glue after the victim declined stitches. Reviewing the facts in the light most
favorable to the state to determine “whether any rational
trier of fact … could have found the essential elements of
the crime beyond a reasonable doubt,” State v. Lupoli, 

, 

 (2010), we affirm.
         To prove that defendant committed second-degree
assault, the state was required to show that she caused
“physical injury to another by means of a deadly or dangerous weapon.” ORS 163.175(1)(b). “Physical injury” is defined,
as relevant here, as an “impairment of physical condition.”
ORS 161.015(7). We have “repeatedly held that cuts and
gashes qualify as ‘impairment of physical condition’ because
they disrupt the skin’s function of protecting the inner body
from infection.” State v. Stone, 

, 

, adh’d to as modified on recons, 

, 

 (2023) (collecting cases). Indeed, an impairment of a
physical condition can include a half-inch bleeding cut on
the back of the head, State v. Hart, 

,

 (2008), or a cut that bleeds alongside swelling,
even if no medical attention is required, State v. Staniford,

, 

 (2024). Here, defendant
caused an injury that bled such that glue was used to close
the wound. That injury fits squarely within the context of
injuries we have determined constitute an impairment of
physical condition.
          Affirmed.




    1
      Defendant was also convicted of unlawful use of a weapon, ORS 166.220,
but does not challenge that conviction on appeal.