State v. Dueker

990 S.W.2d 670, 1999 Mo. App. LEXIS 478
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 13, 1999
DocketNo. 73426
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 990 S.W.2d 670 (State v. Dueker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Dueker, 990 S.W.2d 670, 1999 Mo. App. LEXIS 478 (Mo. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

PAUL J. SIMON, Presiding Judge

Derric Dueker (defendant) appeals the judgment entered on the jury’s verdict finding him guilty of (1) involuntary manslaughter, pursuant to section 565.024 RSMo 1994 (all further references shall be to RSMo 1994 unless otherwise noted), for which he was sentenced to a term of seven years’ imprisonment and a $1000 fine; (2) operation of a motor vehicle without a valid license, pursuant to section 302.020, for which he was sentenced to a concurrent term of fifteen days’ imprisonment and a $100 fine; and (3) failure to maintain financial responsibility, pursuant to section 303.025, for which he was sentenced to a concurrent term of fifteen days’ imprisonment and a $100 fine.

On appeal, defendant contends that the trial court erred in (1) denying his motion [672]*672for judgment of acquittal on the charge of involuntary manslaughter and entering judgment on the jury’s verdict because there existed insufficient evidence to convince a rational trier of fact that defendant had caused Darrell Keck’s death by acting ■with criminal negligence in that the evidence did not establish the cause of the collision or did not establish that defendant operated his vehicle in a way that would cause Keck’s death; and (2) overruling defendant’s objection to the State’s argument that the charge of involuntary manslaughter involved a question of whether he had used “the highest degree of care” in operating his vehicle because this argument constituted a misstatement of the law, confused the jury, and invited jurors to apply a lower burden of proof in that the standard pronounced in this argument involved negligence but the State had to show that defendant acted with criminal negligence to convict him of involuntary manslaughter.

Additionally, defendant argues that the trial court (3) “erred and plainly erred” in submitting Instruction No. 5 to the jury because (a) the instruction incorrectly posited that defendant “operated the motor vehicle in a careless and imprudent manner” in that operating a vehicle in such a way does not necessarily constitute criminal negligence; furthermore, the instruction confused the jury regarding the type of negligence which the State had to establish; and (b) there existed no evidence that he had failed to maintain a proper lookout in that the evidence established that he did not hit Keck’s bicycle from the rear; furthermore, there existed no evidence that defendant’s vehicle swerved into the bicycle to cause the accident; (4) erred in overruling defendant’s motion for mistrial after the trial court failed to read the required “recess instruction” to the venire-persons immediately prior to the first recess in that such an instruction would have provided necessary guidance concerning venirepersons’ conduct during recesses; the trial court’s failure to give the instruction left venirepersons without such guidance and free to discuss the case based upon information obtained during voir dire; and (5) erred in denying defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal on the charge of failure to maintain financial responsibility and entering judgment on the jury’s verdict because violation of section 303.025 does not constitute a criminal offense in that the applicable statutes do not provide criminal penalties for violation of section 303.025. We affirm.

The record, viewed in a light most favorable to the verdict, reveals that at approximately 3:00 p.m. on August 16, 1995, defendant’s shift at Hawk Ridge Golf Course in Lake St. Louis, Missouri, ended, whereupon he drove his vehicle, a Datsun 280ZX, to a Shell station to purchase some gasoline and a twenty-four ounce can of Bud Light. He drank the Bud Light en route to his next destination, a liquor store near the intersection of Lindbergh Boulevard and Interstate 70, where he purchased a six-pack of Busch. He placed the six beers in a cooler and drove to his apart-, ment “off of ... North Lindberg[h],” where he drank at least three of them over a period of about three hours. Having borrowed twenty dollars from a friend named Pat on the previous day, defendant went to the home of Robert Glen in Maryland Heights to attempt to repay Pat. Defendant found no one at Glen’s house and returned to his apartment at approximately 6:30 p.m.

Next, having “decided” that he had to go to work on the following day, he went to the home of Gary Lowden in Wentzville with the remaining Busch beers in tow. Defendant stated, “I would have been in trouble if I would have showed up and not brought beer.” The drive from his apartment to Lowden’s home took approximately thirty minutes. Bob Malphus, Mal-phus’s girlfriend, and her three children were there; Lowden was there but was sick in bed. Defendant stated that he drank “probably maybe” four additional beers at Lowden’s house, but expert testi[673]*673mony later would establish that defendant consumed approximately sixteen beers between 3:15 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. that evening. At approximately 8:45 p.m., Malphus’s girlfriend asked defendant to follow her and Malphus to a maintenance shop so that defendant could give Malphus a ride back to Lowden’s house after Malphus would install training wheels on her children’s bicycles. Defendant agreed. Malphus installed the training wheels, his girlfriend and the children left in their own car, and defendant and Malphus went to the clubhouse or pro shop at the golf course to retrieve a candle that would keep mosquitoes away from the rear of Lowden’s house.

Shortly after 9:00 p.m., under a clear, dark sky, with a beer between his legs, an expired driver’s license on his person, and no proof of insurance in his vehicle, defendant entered Highway N, heading east on his way back to Lowden’s house with Mal-phus. Referring to the section of Highway N on which he would travel that night, defendant stated, “I knew that piece of the road right there, yes.” The temperature was eighty-nine degrees; winds blew from the south at eight miles per hour with no precipitation. The record does not indicate that the road was wet.

Defendant claimed that, while traveling at a pace near the speed limit of fifty-five miles per hour on Highway N, he saw Darrell Keck riding a bicycle on the right side of defendant’s lane. Defendant stated, “I saw it quite early,” approximately 200 yards in front of his vehicle. At approximately the same time, a young man named Brian Scott, driving in another vehicle with three passengers in the opposite lane, saw defendant’s car, which appeared to be traveling fast and weaving back and forth between the right edge of the road and the middle of the highway. Scott saw Keck on his bike after seeing defendant’s car; specifically, Scott (1) saw reflectors, possibly on the pedals of the bicycle; (2) noticed that Keck was on the right edge of the roadway, always riding in a straight line down that edge; and (3) observed that Keck wore light-colored clothing.

Defendant claimed that, at a point approximately fifty yards behind Keck’s bicycle, he removed his foot from the accelerator and prepared to approach and pass Keck. From the opposite direction, Scott’s vehicle reached the crest of a small hill having a grade of approximately .003, where a solid yellow line designating a no-passing zone for defendant’s lane became a double yellow fine designating a no-passing zone for both lanes. Although defendant knew that he was in a no-passing zone, he stated, “I didn’t know you couldn’t pass a bicycle at that point.” He added, “And I thought I could move to the left and go around the bicycle,” crossing over the center fine. According to defendant, “[shopping wasn’t an option,” whether at 200 yards or fifty yards.

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Bluebook (online)
990 S.W.2d 670, 1999 Mo. App. LEXIS 478, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-dueker-moctapp-1999.