Wipfel v. State, 320 Ga. 84

Kristian Wipfel was convicted of malice murder and related crimes after the 2015 shooting death of eight-year-old Jai'mel Anderson in Fort Valley, Georgia.
The incident stemmed from a drug dispute; Wipfel and others confronted Dejad Williams, resulting in shots fired into Williams' apartment, killing Anderson.
Wipfel was tried together with two co-defendants; he was acquitted of making terroristic threats but convicted on other charges and sentenced to life without parole.
The appeal concerns only Wipfel and focuses on whether the trial court erred by not instructing the jury on involuntary manslaughter as a lesser included offense.
Wipfel did not request this instruction at trial, raising the issue only on appeal under the plain error standard.

Issue	Wipfel's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Did the trial court err by failing to instruct on involuntary manslaughter as a lesser included offense of malice murder (when there was no request at trial)?	Trial evidence could support involuntary manslaughter; failure to instruct was plain error.	No request was made; under established Georgia law, failure to give unrequested lesser-included charge is not error.	No legal error; trial court's omission was not error under controlling precedent.

State v. Stonaker, 236 Ga. 1 (failure to charge jury on lesser included offense, without request, is not error under Georgia law)
State v. Kelly, 290 Ga. 29 (adopts plain error review of unobjected-to jury instruction errors)
Smith v. State, 236 Ga. 5 (applies Stonaker rule on no sua sponte duty for lesser-included charge)
Wellborn v. State, 236 Ga. 319 (reiterates no error where trial court omits unrequested lesser included offense instruction)