State v. Omar-Muhammad

737 P.2d 1165, 105 N.M. 788
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedMay 13, 1987
Docket16026
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 737 P.2d 1165 (State v. Omar-Muhammad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Omar-Muhammad, 737 P.2d 1165, 105 N.M. 788 (N.M. 1987).

Opinion

OPINION

STOWERS, Justice.

Ibn Omar-Muhammad (defendant) appeals from his second conviction of first degree depraved mind murder, pursuant to NMSA 1978, Subsection 30-2-l(A)(3) (Repl.Pamp.1984), for the death of Allen Gates Cross, a bystander killed when defendant drove through a police roadblock at a speed of approximately 100 miles per hour. Initially, defendant was tried by a jury and convicted of depraved mind murder and three counts of aggravated assault on a police officer. He appealed from the murder conviction, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment, and this Court reversed, holding that the jury had been instructed improperly on the elements of depraved mind murder. See State v. Omar-Muhammad, 102 N.M. 274, 694 P.2d 922 (1985) (Omar-Muhammad I).

Upon remand for a new trial on the murder count, defendant again was tried by a jury, convicted of first degree depraved mind murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He appeals from this judgment and sentence. We reverse and remand to the district court for a new trial.

This case presents the following issues:

(1) Did the district court commit reversible error when it refused to instruct the jury on homicide by vehicle by reckless driving, pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 66-8-101 (Cum.Supp.1986) and NMSA 1978, Section 66-8-113, as a lesser included offense of depraved mind murder?

(2) Did the district court commit reversible error when it refused to instruct the jury on homicide by vehicle while under the influence of drugs, pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 66-8-101 (Cum.Supp.1986), as a lesser included offense of depraved mind murder?

(3) Did the district court commit reversible error when it admitted, for purposes of impeachment, defendant’s in-custody statement to police obtained in violation of the requirements of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966)?

(4) Did the district court commit reversible error when it allowed cross-examination of defendant regarding his unauthorized departure from a Colorado juvenile detention facility six weeks before the incident for which defendant was tried?

(5) Was defendant denied a fair trial by statements in the prosecutor’s closing argument describing defendant’s acts in terms not identical to those of the jury instructions given by the district court?

We conclude that the district court should have instructed the jury on the lesser included offenses of vehicular homicide by reckless driving and vehicular homicide while under the influence of drugs. We therefore reverse the district court’s judgment and sentence and remand this case for a new trial. Because similar evidentiary questions will arise on retrial, we also consider the other issues raised by this appeal, discussing each of defendant's contentions separately.

I. Failure to Instruct on Vehicular Homicide by Reckless Driving.

The facts of this case were described in detail in our Omar-Muhammad I opinion. The evening before Allen Gates Cross’s death occurred on a two-lane state highway north of Clovis, New Mexico, the seventeen-year-old defendant accepted an offer to drive with a stranger, one Mr. Griffin, from his hometown of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to California. They left Oklahoma City in Mr. Griffin’s red Mercedes between 11 and 12 o’clock the night of September 29, 1983.

Mr. Griffin drove from Oklahoma City to Amarillo, Texas, where he and defendant stopped and slept in the Mercedes for a couple of hours. Setting out again on Interstate 40 shortly after dawn, defendant drove from Amarillo to San Jon, New Mexico. As they drove, they shared a number of marijuana cigarettes. While Mr. Griffin was in a gas station restroom in San Jon, defendant took the car and headed southward.

Driving at sixty-five or seventy miles per hour, defendant first encountered a police vehicle some fourteen miles north of Clovis. He sped away at approximately 100 miles per hour, eluding the officers’ attempt to chase him. They radioed ahead, and another officer set up a roadblock by parking his marked vehicle, with emergency lights blinking, in one lane of traffic, and positioning himself, with a gun, in the open lane. As he approached the roadblock, defendant neither stopped nor steered around the officer. He laid his head down on the seat and drove through the open lane of the roadblock, forcing the officer to get out of the way of the Mercedes. Continuing southward at a high rate of speed, defendant pulled into the northbound lane to pass a truck and remained in that lane until he forced a northbound police vehicle off the road. The officer driving that vehicle turned around and, with siren and emergency lights on, pursued defendant.

Further down the road, two police officers set up a two-car roadblock and positioned themselves on the pavement outside their vehicles. Defendant passed the vehicle immediately ahead of his and drove through this roadblock, again with his head on the seat, at approximately 100 miles per hour. When he cleared the roadblock, defendant was aware that he had hit one of the police cars and that his left front tire was damaged. Defendant did not try to stop his vehicle and was unable to control its swerving. The Mercedes hit a stationary hay truck, flew over an embankment into a field, and hit Cross and his motorcycle, killing the young man. The Mercedes continued across the field. When it finally came to rest, defendant emerged and attempted unsuccessfully to run away from the police.

Defendant testified that he did not see the young man or his motorcycle and that he did not know he had struck and killed ’Cross until he was apprehended by angered (police officers. He asserted that he failed 'to see one of the police vehicles pursuing him, and the lights and markings on the others, because he was not wearing his eyeglasses. He claimed that he attempted to evade the roadblocks because he wanted to go home and was scared of being arrested, in possession of marijuana, by small-town police officers. Defendant believed he could get through the final roadblock because he had seen a vehicle ahead of him do so, and felt that he was driving safely at 95 to 100 miles per hour. He denied wanting to hurt anyone, including the officers at the roadblocks.

The only homicide charge filed against defendant was first degree depraved mind murder, pursuant to Subsection 30-2-1(A)(3). At trial, defendant tendered requested jury instructions on vehicular homicide by reckless driving, pursuant to Sections 66-8-101 and 66-8-113, as a lesser included offense of depraved mind murder. The district court refused to give these instructions, concluding that there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction for the lesser offense. On appeal, defendant challenges that ruling.

In Omar-Muhammad I, this Court established that vehicular homicide by reckless driving is a lesser included offense of depraved mind murder. See State v. Omar-Muhammad, 102 N.M. at 278-79, 694 P.2d at 926-27.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
737 P.2d 1165, 105 N.M. 788, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-omar-muhammad-nm-1987.