State v. Bradford

700 So. 2d 1046, 1997 WL 594363
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided September 24, 1997·No. 29654-KA·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

700 So.2d 1046 (1997)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,
v.
Vernon B. BRADFORD, Appellant.

No. 29654-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

September 24, 1997.

*1047 Betty L. Marak, Daryl Gold, Shreveport, for Appellant.

Richard Ieyoub, Attorney General, Paul Carmouche, District Attorney, Ross S. Owen, Assistant District Attorney, for Appellee.

Before BROWN, STEWART and CARAWAY, JJ.

BROWN, Judge.

Defendant, Vernon Bradford, questions the sufficiency of the incriminating evidence that resulted in his conviction of vehicular homicide. Following the jury verdict the trial court sentenced defendant to the maximum term of 15 years at hard labor. On appeal, this court noted that a motion to reconsider the sentence had not been acted upon and ordered the trial court to rule upon the motion and supplement the appellate record. The trial court granted the motion, then inexplicably denied the state's request to present evidence and reduced the sentence to seven years at hard labor. Defendant's presence was waived at this new "sentencing" proceeding. We affirm defendant's conviction, but set aside the resentencing and remand.

Facts

On the night of March 2, 1995, around 10:30 p.m., defendant, Vernon Bradford, was involved in a head-on collision with Edwin Beard, Jr., on La. Hwy. 1 north of Oil City. It was a rainy night and the road was slick. Caddo Parish sheriff's deputy Steven Joe, the first to arrive on the scene, found both Beard and the puppy riding with him dead. Defendant, who was pinned inside his truck but alive, told Deputy Joe that he did not know what happened.

Deputy Joe detected a strong smell of alcohol on defendant. The deputy testified that defendant's speech was slurred and incoherent. Furthermore, defendant admitted that he had consumed six beers between 3:30 and 10:30 p.m. Defendant was taken to Willis-Knighton North for medical treatment. At the hospital defendant was read his Miranda rights. Deputy Joe, believing defendant to be intoxicated, had Sheila Wright, Caddo Parish sheriff's office nurse, withdraw defendant's blood for a blood alcohol test. Defendant's blood reflected .16 grams percent alcohol, which exceeded the legal level of intoxication.

Deputy Joe testified that defendant's pick-up truck was headed north on Hwy. 1 and Beard's pick-up truck was southbound at the time of the collision. The collision spun defendant's northbound vehicle around to face southbound, leaving scuff marks and tire gouges in the dirt.

Beard, who was 21 years old, suffered crushing injuries and died from blood loss. There was no evidence of alcohol or other drugs in Beard's system. Ray Herd, assistant director of the North Louisiana Crime Lab, testified as an expert witness in accident reconstruction. Mr. Herd opined that the accident was caused by defendant's truck swerving into Beard's lane of travel.

The defense presented two witnesses. Defendant's brother testified that he split a 12 pack of beer with defendant, who then drove him home. The accident scene was approximately 25 minutes away from the witness's home. Professor Jack Humpheries, testifying as an accident reconstruction expert for the defense, stated that he was unable to determine how the accident occurred.

*1048 Discussion

Sufficiency of the evidence

Under Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), the proper standard of appellate review for a sufficiency of the evidence claim is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt. La.C.Cr.P. art. 821; State v. Bellamy, 599 So.2d 326 (La.App. 2d Cir. 1992), writ denied, 605 So.2d 1089 (La.1992).

This court's authority to review questions of fact in a criminal case is limited to the sufficiency of the evidence evaluation under Jackson v. Virginia and does not extend to credibility determinations made by the trier of fact. La. Const. art. 5, § 5(C); State v. Williams, 448 So.2d 753 (La.App. 2d Cir.1984). A reviewing court accords great deference to a jury's decision to accept or reject the testimony of a witness in whole or in part. State v. Rogers, 494 So.2d 1251 (La.App. 2d Cir.1986), writ denied, 499 So.2d 83 (La.1987).

To be guilty of vehicular homicide, a defendant must operate a vehicle while his blood/alcohol concentration is .08 percent or more. In addition, there must be a causal connection between the impaired driving and the death. La. R.S. 14:32.1; State v. Taylor, 463 So.2d 1274 (La.1985).

Defendant argues that the evidence did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that his impaired driving caused the accident and Beard's death. He proposes that Beard crossed the center line and struck his vehicle.

Deputy Steven Joe testified that he discovered scuff marks in Beard's lane of travel (southbound). These scuff marks were discovered by Deputy Joe in the northbound and southbound lanes. Deputy Joe, using the location of the various scuff marks, explained the chain of events as defendant veering into the path of Beard's truck, colliding, and being spun around. Deputy Joe testified that defendant smelled strongly of alcoholic beverages and was barely coherent. The officer firmly believed defendant to be intoxicated. Defendant told Deputy Joe that he did not know what had happened. The deputy's suspicions of defendant's inability to operate his truck were confirmed when defendant's blood level tested .16 grams alcohol.

The state also presented the testimony of Ray Herd, an accident reconstruction expert. Herd estimated that the victim's truck was traveling at a speed of between 50-55 m.p.h. and that defendant was going 15-25 m.p.h. The slower, improperly angled vehicle was defendant's because, as Herd testified, Beard's truck was traveling too fast at regular road speed to be turned to the angle which caused the head-on collision on the narrow, two-lane road at the time of impact. Herd further stated that a slow moving vehicle could swerve immediately into a 15 degree angle and cause a head-on collision with an oncoming car. The fact that defendant's truck spun around 180 further supports this conclusion.

Defendant's accident reconstruction expert, Dr. Jack Humpheries, estimated that the victim was traveling around 50 m.p.h. and that defendant was traveling a little faster than 20-25 m.p.h. Dr. Humpheries' testimony did little to dispute Herd's findings. Dr. Humpheries testified that he could not tell how or precisely where the accident occurred because of the absence of visible gouge marks in the pictures of the accident scene. Dr. Humpheries also noted that he only viewed one of the vehicles involved in the collision, defendant's truck.

In the absence of internal contradiction or irreconcilable conflict with physical evidence, one witness's testimony, if believed by the trier of fact, is sufficient support for a requisite factual conclusion. State v. Braswell, 605 So.2d 702 (La.App. 2d Cir.1992); State v. Emerick, 499 So.2d 195 (La.App. 2d Cir.1986); State v. Garlepied, 454 So.2d 1147 (La.App. 4th Cir.1984), writ denied, 462 So.2d 189 (La.1984).

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State v. Bradford, 700 So. 2d 1046, 1997 WL 594363 (La. Ct. App. 1997).

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