Commonwealth v. Havenner

23 Va. Cir. 432, 1991 Va. Cir. LEXIS 57
CourtVirginia Circuit Court
DecidedApril 24, 1991
StatusPublished

This text of 23 Va. Cir. 432 (Commonwealth v. Havenner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Virginia Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Havenner, 23 Va. Cir. 432, 1991 Va. Cir. LEXIS 57 (Va. Super. Ct. 1991).

Opinion

By JUDGE JAMES W. HALEY, JR.

Relying upon Grady v. Corbin, 110 S. Ct. 2084 (1990), and its progeny, defendant has moved the court to dismiss an indictment for felonious hit and run (§ 46.2-894) on the ground that an already-concluded driving while intoxicated charge (§ 18.2-266) arose out of the "same conduct" and the present charge is accordingly barred by double jeopardy.

On October 26, 1990, a collision occurred in King George County between motor vehicles operated by Candy Shreze and the defendant. Ms. Shreze was injured, and defendant left the scene.

The accident was investigated by Trooper M. L. Bowman. Upon his sworn statements, a magistrate that day issued two warrants for defendant’s arrest, one charging a violation of § 46.2-894 (hit and run - felony) and one charging a violation of § 18.2-266 (driving while intoxicated). Both were executed by Trooper Bowman’s arrest of defendant at his home in Colonial Beach at 12:25 a.m. and 12:26 a.m. on October 27, 1990.

On January 2, 1991, after a trial on the merits, the General District Court of King George County found the defendant not guilty of the driving while intoxicated [433]*433charge.1 The hit and run felony was certified to the grand jury.

At an ore tenus hearing on April 11, 1991, concerning the instant motion, Trooper Bowman answered affirmatively to counsel’s question as to whether "Both warrants were related to the same set of facts?" Trooper Bowman further testified that both warrants were issued for "the same incident."

The question here raised requires a substantial review of relevant case law.

In Low v. Commonwealth, 11 Va. App. 48, 51, 396 S.E.2d 383, 385 (1990), the Court of Appeals stated:

Recently in Grady v. Corbin, 110 S. Ct. 2084 (1990), the Supreme Court clarified the standard for determining whether successive prosecutions are barred by the double jeopardy clause of the fifth amendment. The traditional test is set forth in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299 (1932):
"The applicable rule is that where the same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions, the test to be applied to determine whether there are two offenses or only one, is whether each provision requires proof of a fact which the other does not."
Id. at 304. The Grady Court stated that the Blockburger test, however, is not the exclusive means of vindicating double jeopardy protections. Grady, 110 S. Ct. at 2092. The Court adopted the reasoning of Illinois v. Vitale, 447 U.S. 410 (1980), that "even if two successive prosecutions were not barred by the Blockburger test, the second prosecution would be barred if the prosecution sought to establish an essen[434]*434tial element of the second crime by proving the conduct for which the defendant was convicted in the first prosecution." Grady, 110 S. Ct. at 2087.
Under the Grady standard, both tests may be required in order to make the appropriate analysis.
"To determine whether a subsequent prosecution is barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause, a court must first apply the traditional Blockburger test. If application of that test reveals that the offenses have identical statutory elements or that one is a lesser included offense of the other, then the inquiry must cease, and the subsequent prosecution is barred."
Id. at 2090. Where, however, the subsequent prosecution survives the Blockburger test, the critical inquiry becomes whether, in the subsequent prosecution, "the government, to establish an essential element of an offense charged in that prosecution, will prove conduct that constitutes an offense for which the defendant has already been prosecuted." Id. at 2093 (footnote omitted).

It is clear that the defendant in the instant case cannot rely upon Blockburger because driving while intoxicated and felonious hit and run require for conviction proof of multiple different facts and because neither is a lesser included offense of the other. Accordingly, defendant must rely upon Grady, that is, he must show that "the same conduct" constitutes an essential element of felonious hit and run and also constitutes an "offense," here driving while intoxicated, for which he has already been prosecuted.

Though technically not applicable because defendant was not convicted of driving while intoxicated (though obviously in jeopardy), the provisions of § 19.2-294 are [435]*435relevant, in that the statute prohibits multiple convictions for "the same act."2

In Estes v. Commonwealth, 212 Va. 23, 24-25, 181 S.E.2d 622, 623 (1971), defendant had been adjudicated an habitual offender in part based upon his convictions for driving while intoxicated and driving while suspended, both arising from the same conduct of driving at the same time and on the same day. The Supreme Court stated:

The defendant contends that his two 1968 convictions arose out of but one act of driving and did not, therefore, result from "separate acts" as contemplated by Code § 46.1-387.2. Thus, he says, the two 1968 convictions should count as only one in determining whether he is an habitual offender. We do not agree.
We think the question before us is resolved by the interpretation we have given to a similar provision in a related statute, Code § 19.1-259 (formerly Code § 19-232).3 That provision is as follows:
". . . If the same act be a violation of two or more statutes . . . conviction under one of such statutes . . . shall be a bar to a prosecution or proceeding under the other or others . . ."
We have held that under this provision one occasion of driving an automobile may give rise to several acts and offenses and that the test of whether there are separate acts sustaining several offenses "is whether the same evidence is required to sustain them." Hundley v. Commonwealth, 193 Va. 449, 451, 69 S.E.2d 336, 337 (1952).
[436]*436Relating this test to the present case, it is clear that the defendant’s 1968 conviction of driving under the influence was not barred, under Code § 19.1-259, by his contemporaneous conviction of driving on a suspended license, or vice versa. This is so because the defendant could have been convicted of driving under the influence without evidence of the suspension of his driver’s license, and he could have been convicted of driving on a suspended license without evidence of his intoxication.
The force of our interpretation of Code Section 19.1-259 carries over and controls the application of the Act to the defendant’s situation.

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Related

Blockburger v. United States
284 U.S. 299 (Supreme Court, 1931)
Illinois v. Vitale
447 U.S. 410 (Supreme Court, 1980)
Grady v. Corbin
495 U.S. 508 (Supreme Court, 1990)
Taylor v. Commonwealth
400 S.E.2d 794 (Court of Appeals of Virginia, 1991)
Estes v. Commonwealth
181 S.E.2d 622 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1971)
Blythe v. Commonwealth
284 S.E.2d 796 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1981)
Low v. Commonwealth
396 S.E.2d 383 (Court of Appeals of Virginia, 1990)
Padgett v. Commonwealth
263 S.E.2d 388 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1980)
Hundley v. Commonwealth
69 S.E.2d 336 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1952)
Wade v. Commonwealth
388 S.E.2d 277 (Court of Appeals of Virginia, 1990)
Fitzgerald v. Commonwealth
401 S.E.2d 208 (Court of Appeals of Virginia, 1991)
United States v. Clark
928 F.2d 639 (Fourth Circuit, 1991)

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Bluebook (online)
23 Va. Cir. 432, 1991 Va. Cir. LEXIS 57, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-havenner-vacc-1991.