State of Iowa v. Sebastin Reece O'Brien

── State of Iowa v. Sebastin Reece O'Brien ── Court: Court of Appeals of Iowa Date: April 29, 2026 Category: General IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA _______________ No. 25-0553 Filed April 29, 2026 _______________ State of Iowa, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Sebastin Reece O’Brien, Defendant–Appellant. _______________ Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Harrison County, The Honorable Jeffrey L. Larson, Judge. _______________ AFFIRMED _______________ Martha J. Lucey, State Appellate Defender, and Melinda J. Nye, Assistant Appellate Defender, attorneys for appellant. Brenna Bird, Attorney General, and Louis S. Sloven, Assistant Attorney General, attorneys for appellee. _______________ Considered without oral argument by Tabor, C.J., and Badding and Langholz, JJ. Opinion by Tabor, C.J. 1 TABOR, Chief Judge. Iowa’s uniform jury instructions advise district courts to rework the standard marshaling instructions if the jury is considering an insanity defense.1 Because the district court declined his counsel’s request to modify the marshaling instructions to cross reference his insanity defense, Sebastin O’Brien challenges the jury’s verdict finding him guilty of murder in the first degree. Although the court did not follow a recommended practice for instructing the jury, O’Brien cannot show that he suffered prejudice on this record. Thus, we decline to grant a new trial. I. Facts and Prior Proceedings A passing motorcylist stopped to help when he saw a speeding pickup miss a curve, skid into the ditch, and flip onto its top. When O’Brien climbed out of the wreckage, the motorcylist noticed blood splatter on his face and clothes. He assumed O’Brien was hurt in the accident. But it was not O’Brien’s blood. The blood—and the crashed pickup—belonged to Douglas Manley. When the motorcylist refused to give the agitated man a ride into Modale, the nearest town, O’Brien started walking. Another passing motorist, also seeing that O’Brien had “blood all over himself” pulled over. O’Brien jumped into that truck and demanded, “Get me out of here.” The 1 A comment to Iowa Criminal Jury Instruction 200.9 (insanity defense) states: “Caveat: If the insanity defense is submitted, then the marshaling instruction should be modified accordingly.”See Iowa State Bar Ass’n, Iowa Crim. Jury Instruction 200.9 cmt.; cf. State v. Hines, No. 09-0241, 2010 WL 446954, at *3 n.1 (Iowa Ct. App. Feb. 10, 2010) (noting “it would have been appropriate and perhaps preferable to explicitly refer to the submissible justification defense within the marshaling instruction” and comparing justification to insanity defense). 2 motorist acknowledged the blood on O’Brien and asked if he needed medical help. O’Brien looked him in the eye and said: “It’s not my blood.” O’Brien refused to leave the truck, so the driver reached for his pistol and used it to strike O’Brien in the mouth. The pair struggled over the gun, with O’Brien eventually giving up and walking back toward the crash site. The motorist went home and called 911. When Harrison County Sheriff’s deputies found O’Brien in the town of Modale he was “agitated” and “combative.”2 As they tried to place him in a patrol car, O’Brien called himself “a wanted murderer.” O’Brien then started talking about “Doug,” saying that he was “bleeding out” and asking the deputies to “please go save him.” At first, the deputies thought someone else was in the crashed truck. But O’Brien clarified that he was talking about Manley who lived in a house