Hopkins v. State

1973 OK CR 40, 506 P.2d 580, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 388
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 31, 1973
DocketA-16536
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 1973 OK CR 40 (Hopkins 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
Hopkins v. State, 1973 OK CR 40, 506 P.2d 580, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 388 (Okla. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinion

OPINION

BLISS, Presiding Judge:

Appellant, Frank Daryl Hopkins, hereinafter referred to as defendant was charged with the offense of Manslaughter in the First Degree. The defendant was tried before a jury in the District Court of Pottawatomie County, and was convicted on the lesser offense of Negligent Homicide. His punishment was fixed at commitment in the county jail of Pottawatomie County for a period of one (1) year at hard labor on the county roads and payment of a fine of One Thousand Dollars ($1000.00) and costs of the action. From said judgment and sentence, a timely appeal has been perfected to this Court.

Larry Wayne Bowles, Highway Patrolman, testified that he received a call from the Tecumseh Police Department at 7:28 p.m., on May 14, to investigate an accident which had just occurred on Highway 9, within Pottawatomie County. It was still daylight when he arrived at the scene, and the defendant was present. The patrolman found: the total measurements of both lanes of the highway at the scene of the accident was twenty-one feet and nine inches at the point of impact; and the highway had a marked lane divider. The defendant’s car was traveling downgrade *582 in a westerly direction. The decedent’s car was traveling easterly on a slight upgrade. Approximately one-tenth of a mile east of the point of impact, there was a warning sign of an approaching intersection, but the intersection was not visible from the location of the sign, but was visible only when an automobile traveling in a westerly direction crested the hill. This intersection was visible at a distance of approximately 500 feet. The defendant lost control of his car approximately 354 feet east of this intersection after he had traveled over the crest of the hill. Officer Bowles further testified that tire marks were found on the shoulder of the road. At this point, the defendant’s car traveled with a wheel off the pavement for 96 feet and then the entire car slid off the pavement on to the shoulder, and traveled 185 feet. At this point, the defendant’s car went into a side-skid, completely out of control. The vehicle then came back on to the pavement of the road traveling sideways, 25 feet from the edge of the pavement, before striking the deceased’s automobile. The point of impact was four and one-half feet south of the center line, in the decedent’s easterly lane of traffic. After the point of impact, the defendant’s car traveled 165 feet westerly, spinning around one and one-half times. The deceased’s vehicle traveled 38½ feet in a southeasterly direction, and stopped in a ditch beside the highway.

Officer Bowles, in his expert opinion, estimated that the speed traveled by the defendant was approximately 80 miles per hour. Also the officer found two full cans of unopened beer inside the defendant’s automobile at the scene of the accident and a third can of beer outside the defendant’s automobile. He stated that the defendant was taken to the hospital after the accident, and that he went to the hospital to talk to him and advised him of his rights at that time. He did not detect odor of alcohol on the defendant at the scene of the accident or later at the hospital, but did detect the smell of alcohol inside the defendant’s automobile. At the hospital, the de7 fendant stated he was going to Harrah and was driving approximately 70 miles per hour. The legal speed limit in this area is 65 miles per hour. The officer testified that due to the terrain and warning signs in this particular area where the accident occurred, it was dangerous to be driving even at the posted speed limit. The defendant had his right arm in a cast from the elbow down due to an injury received prior to the automobile accident, and stated to Officer Bowles at the hospital, “I’m just almost like one-handed — I just couldn’t hold it [referring to his vehicle].” This statement represents the substantial facts available from the record on this appeal.

The defendant raises several propositions of error in his brief on appeal to this Court and those propositions which have been properly presented and supported by competent authority will be discussed in this following Opinion.

The defendant asserts error in a proposition alleging that the trial court erred in overruling defendant’s demurrer to the Information and motion to dismiss subsequent to the empaneling and swearing of the jury. This proposition is based on the assumption that Manslaughter in the First Degree, 21 O.S.1971, § 711, has been superseded or impliedly repealed by the Oklahoma Negligent Homicide Statute, 47 O.S.1971, § 11-903.

Tn discussing this proposition it will be necessary to review the significant cases this Court has decided regarding the propriety of charging either the offense of First Degree Manslaughter or that of Negligent Homicide. In Ritchie v. Raines, Okl.Cr., 374 P.2d 772 (1962), this Court held that 47 O.S.1971, § 11-903, Negligent Homicide, did not supersede or repeal by implication the provisions of 21 O.S.1971, § 711, First Degree Manslaughter, when the misdemeanor charged, resulting in the death of a person, is operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants. Later, in 1970 this Court held in the case of Atchley v. State, Okl.Cr., 473 P.2d 286 (1970), that the Negligent Homi *583 cide Statute was repugnant and inconsistent with Manslaughter Second Degree, and that this statute was impliedly repealed by the latter. Therefore, prosecution for criminal negligence in the operation of an automobile previously brought under Manslaughter Second Degree would now have to be brought under the Negligent Homicide Statute. The Court’s intention in this case is clear and it specifically limited the effect of Negligent Homicide to cases previously brought under Second Degree Manslaughter and in no way affected prosecution of cases brought under Manslaughter in the First Degree. Lastly, in 1971, this Court held in White v. State, Okl.Cr., 483 P.2d 751 (1971), that proof of intoxication, beyond a reasonable doubt, takes the offense of homicide, resulting from an automobile accident, out of the definition of “Negligent Homicide” and warrants prosecution of Manslaughter in the First Degree. In this decision, the Court discussed its holding in Atchley, supra, and succintly stated that its decision in Atchley, supra, was limited to Manslaughter in the Second Degree and that there were instances where a prosecution for Manslaughter in the First Degree resulting in a homicide from an automobile accident would be proper and the charge sufficient to sustain a conviction. The White, supra, case, proving a condition of intoxication, is merely one instance of such gross negligence as to remove the offense from negligent homicide and place it within the boundaries of First Degree Manslaughter. The court did not limit its extension of this rule in White, supra, but stated that driving while intoxicated was but one of the bases for substantiating a charge of First Degree Manslaughter as opposed to Negligent Homicide.

Since in the present case the defendant was found guilty of Negligent Homicide, the question' of whether the actions of the defendant were sufficient to sustain conviction of First Degree Manslaughter is not before this Court. The defendant’s proposition improperly presumes that the charge of First Degree Manslaughter in regard to homicides in the negligent operation of an automobile has been repealed. It has not been repealed or superseded.

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Murdock v. State
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Rose v. State
1973 OK CR 225 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1973)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1973 OK CR 40, 506 P.2d 580, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 388, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hopkins-v-state-oklacrimapp-1973.