State v. Kellum

CourtCourt of Appeals of Kansas
DecidedApril 3, 2020
Docket119809
StatusUnpublished

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

Bluebook
State v. Kellum, (kanctapp 2020).

Opinion

NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION

No. 119,809

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF KANSAS

STATE OF KANSAS, Appellee,

v.

CLARENCE O. KELLUM, Appellant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appeal from Wyandotte District Court; MICHAEL A. RUSSELL, judge. Opinion filed April 3, 2020. Affirmed.

Christopher R. Cuevas, of Kansas City, for appellant.

Ethan Zipf-Sigler, assistant district attorney, Mark A. Dupree Sr., district attorney, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, for appellee.

Before ATCHESON, P.J., HILL and BUSER, JJ.

BUSER, J: Clarence O. Kellum appeals his convictions for two counts of vehicular homicide and speeding. Kellum raises two issues on appeal. First, he contends the district court erred by admitting testimony regarding accident data recovered from his vehicle because the State failed to provide an evidentiary foundation for its admission. Second, Kellum claims there was insufficient evidence to support his vehicular homicide convictions. Upon our review, we affirm Kellum's convictions.

1 FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On April 15, 2017, Kellum was involved in a two-vehicle collision in Kansas City, Kansas. Kellum's vehicle struck an SUV as it made a left-hand turn to enter an apartment complex. The two occupants of the SUV—Samuel Vissepo-Quinones and Bryan Vierra- Duran—died as a result of the collision.

The State charged Kellum, in part, with two counts of second-degree murder. These two counts were charged in the alternative as involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence. The State also charged Kellum with three counts of aggravated endangering a child, driving under the influence (DUI), improper use of a wireless device while driving, and speeding.

During the jury trial, Michael Carrothers, a Kansas City firefighter, testified that he was stationed on 55th Street on April 15, 2017. At about 12:30 a.m., Carrothers was outside the fire station when he heard a vehicle traveling northbound on 55th Street. Carrothers looked and saw a black sedan traveling "excessively fast," and he hoped police officers would stop the vehicle because of its speed. Kellum was the driver of the black sedan.

About one or two seconds after Kellum drove by him, Carrothers heard tires screech and two impacts, but he could not see the collision. Carrothers responded to the scene of the collision with fellow firefighters. He observed Kellum's vehicle and an SUV. The driver of the SUV was still in the vehicle but Kellum had exited his vehicle. Kellum told Carrothers that the SUV pulled out in front of him. Kellum expressed concern about his three daughters who were in his vehicle.

Carrothers described the roadway where the accident took place as straight and without curves. Kellum's vehicle sustained front-end damage. The SUV had passenger-

2 side damage where Kellum struck the vehicle and damage on the vehicle's roof where the SUV then struck a telephone pole. Carrothers noted that the damage to the vehicles was consistent with Kellum's claim that the SUV drove in front of him to turn into an apartment complex.

When Kansas City, Kansas police officers arrived at the scene, Kellum was sitting in a parking lot and holding one of his daughters. After handing his daughter to the officers, Kellum stood up and tried to get into his vehicle. Officer Adriane Ferrer stopped Kellum from entering the vehicle. The officer noted that Kellum had "very poor balance" and she grabbed ahold of him to prevent him from falling. Officer Ferrer instructed Kellum to remain sitting because of his poor balance but Kellum was uncooperative. Officer Ferrer smelled the odor of alcohol coming from Kellum's breath. As a result, the officer detained Kellum and placed him in her patrol vehicle.

After arresting Kellum, Officer Ferrer helped Kellum contact his mother to care for his children. An ambulance transported Kellum to the hospital. While at the hospital, Kellum admitted that he drank a couple of beers that night and told a nurse, "It wasn't that far. I didn't think it would be a problem. I was just at a friend's house having some beers." After Kellum refused to consent to blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) testing, officers obtained a search warrant to collect a sample of Kellum's blood for the testing of alcohol consumption. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) tested the blood sample and it revealed that Kellum had a BAC of .10. A KBI forensic expert opined that a BAC of .10 would negatively impact a person's ability to safely operate a vehicle by impairing judgment, reaction time, and coordination.

An autopsy revealed that Vissepo-Quinones—the driver of the SUV—ingested cocaine and alcohol before the collision occurred. Vissepo-Quinones had recently used the cocaine before he died and he had a BAC of .094 at his time of death. A forensic

3 pathologist testified that Vissepo-Quinones would have been impaired by ingesting alcohol and cocaine at the time the collision occurred.

Detective James Gunzenhauser was assigned to investigate the collision. Before the State called Detective Gunzenhauser to testify at trial, Kellum objected to the detective's anticipated testimony that Kellum was driving 101 miles per hour shortly before the accident. Kellum noted that Detective Gunzenhauser's testimony regarding his speed would be based on a crash data recorder (CDR) recovered from his vehicle. Kellum objected to the lack of foundation for Detective Gunzenhauser's anticipated testimony, arguing that the officer who downloaded the data from the CDR—Officer Chuck Seawood—was a necessary witness. Kellum suggested that without Officer Seawood as a witness, he would be unable to determine whether the downloaded equipment was properly functioning or question how the download occurred.

The State responded to Kellum's objection by arguing that Detective Gunzenhauser could establish an evidentiary foundation because he knew how to download CDR information, he knew how to read and interpret that information, and he witnessed Officer Seawood download the CDR information. The State claimed that Kellum's concerns related to the weight, not admissibility of the CDR evidence. The district court overruled Kellum's prelimenary objection and determined it needed to hear from Detective Gunzenhauser before it made a final ruling.

At trial, Detective Gunzenhauser testified regarding his training and experience in investigating vehicular accidents. Detective Gunzenhauser received basic accident investigation training in 1994 when he became a law enforcement officer. Later, he obtained advanced accident investigation training, which involved more in-depth measurements and diagramming skills, and attendance at an accident reconstruction school. Detective Gunzenhauser began investigating fatality accidents about three years

4 before trial. During that time, the detective investigated approximately 70 fatal or life- threatening accident scenes.

At trial, Detective Gunzenhauser first testified regarding his observations of the crash scene. The detective testified that the SUV was traveling southbound on 55th street when the driver tried to make a left-hand turn into an apartment complex. According to Detective Gunzenhauser, Kellum's vehicle was traveling northbound when it collided with the SUV. Based on damage to the vehicles, the detective determined that the impact occurred at a high-speed. Of note, the SUV had its headlights and turn signal on at the time of the collision.

Detective Gunzenhauser explained that he also had received training on examining crash data recorded on a vehicle's CDR. The purpose of this training was to teach participants to interpret information downloaded from a CDR.

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State v. Kellum, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-kellum-kanctapp-2020.