Is a defendant guilty of attempted voluntary manslaughter rather than attempted murder?

Attempted voluntary manslaughter is a lesser included offense of attempted murder. A person who unsuccessfully attempts to kill another, and who does so "with the intent to kill which was formed in a heat of passion or which arose out of an honest but unreasonable belief in the necessity of self-defense," is guilty of attempted voluntary manslaughter rather than attempted murder. (People v. Van Ronk (1985) 171 Cal.App.3d 818, 820, 824-825.)

"The trial court has a duty to instruct the jury sua sponte on all lesser included offenses if there is substantial evidence from which a jury can reasonably conclude the defendant committed the lesser, uncharged offense, but not the greater." (People v. Brothers (2015) 236 Cal.App.4th 24, 29.) "Substantial evidence is evidence sufficient to 'deserve consideration by the jury,' that is, evidence that a reasonable jury could find persuasive." (People v. Barton (1995) 12 Cal.4th 186, 201, fn. 8; see People v. Breverman (1998) 19 Cal.4th 142, 162 ["the existence of 'any evidence, no matter how weak' will not justify instructions on a lesser included offense"].) "This instructional requirement ' "prevents either party, whether by design or inadvertence, from forcing an all-or-nothing choice between conviction of the stated offense on the one hand, or complete acquittal on the other. Hence, the rule encourages a verdict, within the charge chosen by the prosecution, that is neither ' harsher [n]or more lenient than the evidence merits.' " ' ' " (Brothers, at pp. 29-30.) "We review the trial court's failure to instruct on a lesser included offense de novo [citations] considering the evidence in the light most favorable to the defendant [citations]." (Id. at p. 30.)