Harney v. State

2011 OK CR 10, 256 P.3d 1002, 2011 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 7, 2011 WL 666319
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 15, 2011
DocketF-2009-908
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 2011 OK CR 10 (Harney v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harney v. State, 2011 OK CR 10, 256 P.3d 1002, 2011 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 7, 2011 WL 666319 (Okla. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

SUMMARY OPINION

LUMPKIN, Judge.

"1 Appellant, Brian Hayden Harney, was tried by jury and convicted of Driving a Motor Vehicle While Under the Influence of Aleohol, a felony, (47 O.8.Supp.2006, § 11-902(A)(2)) in the District Court of Nowata County, Case Number CF-2008-85 and Driving With License Revoked (47 0.$.8upp.2007, § 6-308) in the District Court of Nowata County, Case Number CM-2008-199. The jury recommended as punishment imprisonment for five (5) years and a fine in the amount of $2,500.00 for the offense of Driving a Motor Vehicle While Under the Influence of Alcohol and incarceration for one (1) year and a fine in the amount of $500.00 for the offense of Driving With License Revoked. The trial court sentenced accordingly and ordered the two sentences to run concurrently. The trial court further ordered Appellant's sentence for Driving a Motor Vehicle While Under the Influence of Alcohol to run concurrent with his Tulsa County convietion at the sentencing hearing, however, the amended judgment and sentence does not give the Tulsa County case number. This is an issue which must be presented to the trial court for resolution. It is from these judgments and sentences that Appellant appeals.

[2 Appellant raises the following propositions of error in this appeal:

I. The Trial Court Committed Reversible Error In Failing To Instruct The Jury On The Lesser Included Offense Of Driving While Impaired.
JI. The Introduction Of Harney's "Driving Index" Which Detailed His Entire Driving Record Was Unfairly Prejudicial And Violated his Rights To A Fundamentally Fair Trial Under The Oklahoma Constitution Article II, Section 7, And The Fourteenth Amendment To The United States Constitution.
III. The Trial Court Committed Reversible Error When It Refused To Instruct The Jury On The Full Range of Punishment For Felony DUI.
IV. Reversible Prosecutorial Misconduct Occurred When The Prosecutor Asked *1004 Harney Directly What He Was Sentenced To On His Prior DUI And If Other Witnesses Lied During Their Testimony.
V. The Accumulation of Errors At Trial Resulted In A Fundamentally Unfair Adjudicatory Proceeding In Violation Of The Rights of Harney Under The Fourteenth Amendment To The United States Constitution And Article II, Section 7 Of The Oklahoma Constitution.

13 After a thorough consideration of these propositions and the entire record before us on appeal including the original records, transcripts, and briefs of the parties, we have determined the case should be remanded for resentencing.

FACTS

14 On August 22, 2008, Appellant was involved in a single vehicle rollover accident on Centralia Road in Nowata County, Oklahoma. Loretta Culp and her husband, Don Culp, discovered that Appellant's vehicle had run off of the roadway and into a field at a curve in the road. The vehicle had rolled over, landed on its wheels and rolled back up to the roadway. It was nose first into a ditch near the roadway. When the Culps discovered the vehicle, it was still running with its headlights on. Smoke was pouring out of the vehicle. Ms. Culp noticed an individual sitting-up out in the field. The Culps contacted emergency officials and a nearby friend, Tony Morris.

[5 Tony Morris and Undersheriff Douglas Sonenberg discovered Appellant in the field. Appellant was bleeding and in pain. It was apparent that he had been thrown from his truck. Appellant resided nearby and both Sonenberg and Morris knew him. Both believed that Appellant had been drinking. Appellant's speech was slurred. Morris and Sonenberg observed debris thrown from the truck in the field. Within the debris officers found a beer carton and nine empty beer cans. Morris heard Appellant admit to the emergency medical worker that he had consumed aleohol earlier in the day.

1 6 Trooper Samuel Stose investigated the accident on behalf of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Stose travelled to the hospital emer-geney room where Appellant received medical treatment. Upon entry into the big open room, Stose observed the odor of an alcoholic beverage. Stose contacted Appellant and noticed that he had red, watery, bloodshot eyes. Stose noted the odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from Appellant's person. He asked Appellant: "Well how much have you had to drink tonight?" - Appellant responded: "Three or four, or four or five beers." Based upon his observations, training and experience, Stose believed that Appellant was under the influence of alcohol and placed him under arrest. Stose read the State's implied consent test request to Appellant and he refused to take the State's blood test. Trooper Stose determined that Appellant's driver's license had been revoked.

T7 Officers remained at the accident seene for a couple of hours after the accident. At no point in time, did anyone observe any other individual at or near the scene of the accident. None of the debris observed in the field could be associated with a woman's purse. Appellant never informed any of the witnesses at the scene that anyone else had been present in the truck. Morris heard Appellant inform the emergency workers: "If you can get me back to my pickup, I can go home." Appellant specifically acknowledged to Trooper Stose that he was the driver of the vehicle. Appellant further stated that "he had left a friend's house a couple of miles away from the accident ... ran off of the road and crashed, and he didn't know why he erashed."

18 Appellant testified in his own defense. He specifically testified he was neither under the influence of aleohol nor impaired by alcohol at the time of accident. He further testified that he was a passenger in the truck when the accident occurred. Appellant testified that he had 8 beers over a three hour period while doing yard work that day. He went to dinner with Cassie Jacobs 1 approximately three hours before the accident and drank 2 beers. Appellant let Cassie Jacobs *1005 drive his son's truck on the night in question because his license was revoked. Jacobs wrecked the truck. After the accident, Jacobs left Appellant in the field. She returned a short time later screaming that she could not find her car keys and purse because they were strewn across the field in the accident. Appellant described that Jacobs turned the pickup truck around and shown its headlights into the field. Jacobs found her keys and left Appellant in the field. Before she left, Appellant asked her to come back and get him onee she had retrieved her car. Under cross examination, Appellant admitted that he had told one of the emergency workers at the accident seene that he was by himself.

ANALYSIS

19 In his first proposition, Appellant contends that the trial court should have instructed the jury regarding the lesser included offenses of Driving While Impaired and Actual Physical Control. 2 Appellant requested the instructions at the jury instruction conference. This properly preserved the alleged error for appellate review. Rutan v. State, 2009 OK CR 3, ¶78, 202 P.3d 839, 855; McHam v. State, 2005 OK CR 28, ¶20, 126 P.3d 662, 669-70; Turrentine v. State, 1998 OK CR 33, 166, 965 P.2d 955, 975.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2011 OK CR 10, 256 P.3d 1002, 2011 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 7, 2011 WL 666319, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harney-v-state-oklacrimapp-2011.