Kiyon L. Brown, 2014 WY 104

Defendant Kiyon L. Brown lived with girlfriend Jeannie Jacobsen; following her mother’s funeral family stayed at their apartment and tensions escalated.
An altercation occurred first in the kitchen; parties separated; a subsequent bathroom confrontation ensued after Jacobsen went in with Brown following a dispute over a key.
Kimberlin Otto (sister) intervened; Brown struck Otto and then struck Jacobsen, breaking Jacobsen’s jaw in two places and causing numbness, scarring, bite problems, and evidence of protracted impairment and airway-complication risk.
Brown was charged with aggravated battery (serious bodily injury to Jacobsen) and misdemeanor battery (Otto); jury convicted on aggravated battery and acquitted on misdemeanor battery; Brown’s motion for new trial denied.
On appeal Brown challenged sufficiency as to "serious bodily injury," adequacy of self-defense instructions, and alleged prosecutorial misconduct for invoking juror sympathy ("imagine" statements and reference to deceased mother).

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence that injury was "serious bodily injury"	State: broken jaw, scarring, numbness, impaired eating, medical testimony of protracted impairment established statutory definition	Brown: jury must unanimously identify which alternative theory of serious bodily injury applied; failure to specify requires reversal under Tanner	Affirmed: definition was part of an element (not alternative elements); evidence was sufficient to support serious bodily injury (broken jaw + protracted impairment)
Adequacy of self-defense jury instruction	State: instructions were proper; defendant failed to make prima facie showing of self-defense	Brown: court should have instructed jury per Drennen on "aggressor" and burden-shifting	Affirmed: Brown presented no prima facie evidence that Jacobsen was aggressor in the bathroom; plain-error review finds no reversible error
Prosecutorial misconduct ("golden rule" & sympathy pleas)	State: references were rhetorical but based on evidence (funeral context) and not so prejudicial as to deprive fair trial	Brown: prosecutor repeatedly told jurors to "imagine" themselves as the victim and highlighted the victim’s recent bereavement to elicit sympathy; this was improper and fundamental error	Affirmed: statements were improper but harmless under plain-error standard given strength of evidence, limited prejudice, and jury instructions to avoid sympathy

Tanner v. State, 57 P.3d 1242 (Wyo. 2002) (addresses when alternative theories constitute separate elements requiring unanimity)
Miller v. State, 127 P.3d 793 (Wyo. 2006) (distinguishes definitions containing alternatives from alternative elements)
Drennen v. State, 311 P.3d 116 (Wyo. 2013) (sets procedure and instructions for claiming self-defense, including burden shifting and defining "aggressor")
O’Brien v. State, 45 P.3d 225 (Wyo. 2002) (recognizes that a broken jaw can constitute serious bodily injury)
Donnelly v. DeChristoforo, 416 U.S. 637 (U.S. 1974) (prosecutorial misconduct can implicate due process and fair-trial rights)