Posted: 5:05 AM Aug 22, 2012
Reporter: Associated Press

A Bellevue man convicted of second-degree murder for killing his roommate could get a new trial after the Nebraska Court of Appeals found that a judge improperly instructed the jury on his self-defense claim.

Darrell White is serving 60-to-90 years in prison for the 2010 stabbing death of 45-year-old Todd Berg in the apartment they shared.

On Tuesday, the appeals court reversed White's conviction. It agreed that a Sarpy County judge should have instructed the jury that White had no duty to retreat if he was not the initial aggressor in the fight.

The judge had said that instruction would apply only if White had acted in self-defense against an intruder, not someone living with him.

But the appeals court said that was an incorrect analysis of Nebraska's self-defense law.

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