State v. Stufflebean

516 S.W.3d 456, 2017 WL 1496950, 2017 Mo. App. LEXIS 354
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 25, 2017
DocketED 104189
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 516 S.W.3d 456 (State v. Stufflebean) 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. Stufflebean, 516 S.W.3d 456, 2017 WL 1496950, 2017 Mo. App. LEXIS 354 (Mo. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

Introduction

Gary M. Gaertner, Jr., Judge

Jason Stufflebean (Defendant) appeals the judgment entered upon his conviction for felony driving while revoked or suspended. This case turns on how much evidence the State must produce in order to prove that a defendant is criminally negligent with respect to knowledge that the State had revoked or- suspended his or her driving privileges. While criminal, negligence is a very low standard, this standard still requires the State to produce some evidence of a defendant’s mental state to convict a defendant of driving while revoked or suspended. Because the State failed to produce sufficient evidence of Defendant’s mental state to convict Defendant, we must reverse.

Background

On October 29, 2014, at about 4:00 p.m., Officer Robby Ryan (Officer Ryan) was driving in a parking lot, where he observed Defendant driving a car. Officer Ryan was not on duty at the time, but he recognized Defendant and believed Defendant’s driver’s license was suspended. Officer Ryan called the Warren County Police Dispatch and asked them to check the license plate number on the vehicle Defendant was driv[458]*458ing and to confirm Defendant’s driving status. The Warren County Police Dispatcher confirmed that Defendant’s license was suspended. Because Officer Ryan was off-duty at that time, he called and informed another officer of what he had observed rather than making a traffic stop.

The State charged Defendant as a prior and persistent offender with one count of driving while revoked or suspended, a class D felony based on Defendant’s prior convictions for driving while revoked or suspended. At trial, the State presented Officer Ryan’s testimony as well as a certified copy of Defendant’s driving record from the Department of Revenue (State’s Exhibit 15), showing two separate “Child Support Enforcement Suspensions.” These entries became effective on October 4, 2014, and October 5, 2014, respectively, and the driving record showed both suspensions were still active on October 29, 2014, when Officer Ryan observed Defendant driving.

The jury found Defendant guilty of driving while revoked or suspended, and the trial court sentenced Defendant to a term of three years’ imprisonment. This appeal follows.

Discussion

Defendant’s sole point on appeal is that the trial court erred in entering judgment against him because the evidence was insufficient from which the jury could find that he acted with criminal negligence with respect to the knowledge of the fact that the Department of Revenue had suspended his driving privileges. We agree.

Our review of challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence requires us to determine “whether, in light of the evidence most favorable to the State, any rational fact-finder could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” State v. Nash, 339 S.W.3d 500, 509 (Mo. banc 2011) (quoting State v. Bateman, 318 S.W.3d 681, 687 (Mo. banc 2010)) (internal quotations omitted). We do not re-weigh the evidence, but “give[] great deference to the trier of fact.” Nash, 339 S.W.3d at 509 (quoting State v. Chaney, 967 S.W.2d 47, 52 (Mo. banc 1998)). At the same time, we “may not supply missing evidence, or give the State the benefit of unreasonable, speculative or forced inferences.” State v. Whalen, 49 S.W.3d 181, 184 (Mo. banc 2001) (internal quotation and alteration omitted).

Here, Section 302.321.1, RSMo. (Supp. 2011), required the jury to find that Defendant “act[ed] with criminal negligence with respect to knowledge of the fact that [his] driving privilege ha[d] been cancelled, suspended, or revoked.” Section 562.016.5, RSMo. (2000) states the following:

A person “acts with criminal negligence” ... when he or she fails to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that circumstances exist or a result will follow, and such failure constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care which a reasonable person would exercise in the situation.

Defendant argues that the only evidence of his suspension in this case was his driving record, that there was no evidence that he had any knowledge that his driving privileges had been suspended by the Children’s Division, and that the State failed to produce evidence that he was unreasonable in failing to be aware of the risk that his driving privileges were suspended.

The State relies on State v. Ise for the proposition that “a driving record showing expiration or revocation is sufficient under [Section 302.321.1] to prove knowledge or criminal negligence with respect to knowledge.” 460 S.W.3d 448, 456 (Mo. App. W.D. 2015) (citing cases). We agree that in many circumstances a certified driving record is [459]*459sufficient. However, this present case reveals that a certified driving record alone is not always sufficient evidence of criminal negligence with respect to knowledge. Additionally, in every case addressing criminal negligence under Section 302.321.1, the driving status alone, as shown on the driving record, has never provided the sole basis for finding a defendant’s requisite mental state.

In Ise, the State had entered into evidence not only the defendant’s record, showing points sufficient to revoke his license, but also a revocation letter sent to the defendant. Id. at 456-57. In State v. Collins, relied on by the Ise court, the State had introduced a certified copy of the defendant’s driving record, which showed 30 continuous revocations, similar in nature, and no eligibility for reinstatement until 2018, as well as evidence that the defendant had received a “non-driver” identification card two months prior to the incident in the case. 413 S.W.3d 689, 697-700 (Mo. App. S.D. 2013).1

In Ise and Collins, the State offered evidence in addition to the defendants’ driving records that demonstrated an unreasonable ignorance of the risk their driving privileges were suspended: 1) notification of their suspension, or 2) obtaining a non-driver identification card. However, the defendants’ driving records alone showed they committed a series of driving offenses which accumulated sufficient points to trigger suspension of their driving privileges. Their knowledge of the past commission of these offenses allows a court or jury to infer that these defendants unreasonably failed to be aware of the risk that their driving privileges were suspended or revoked as a consequence of the accumulation of points from these known offenses.

However, here, Defendant’s driving record did not reveal the commission of driving offenses sufficient to require a suspension based on accumulation of points. Here, Defendant’s driving record showed the following:

• 1995-2009: 22 violations for driving while revoked or suspended; all suspensions/revocations due to point accumulation driving offenses or failure to maintain insurance;
• 2011: Convicted of most recent driving while revoked or suspended, for which Defendant was arrested in 2009;
• June 1, 2012: Eligible for reinstatement of driving privilege;

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516 S.W.3d 456, 2017 WL 1496950, 2017 Mo. App. LEXIS 354, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-stufflebean-moctapp-2017.