Stokes v. State

154 A.2d 714, 220 Md. 471, 1959 Md. LEXIS 529

• Court: Court of Appeals of Maryland
• Decided: October 16, 1959
• Docket: [No. 33, September Term, 1959.]
• Status: Published

Opinion

PER Curiam.

The only contention made by the defendant on this appeal is that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction. Pie was tried and found guilty by the Criminal Court of Baltimore, sitting without a jury, on a charge of manslaughter by automobile. Our function in reviewing the determination of such a question of fact by a trial judge is to decide whether or not the evidence, and proper inferences therefrom, were sufficient to warrant that judge in reaching the conclusion that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Basoff v. State, 208 Md. 643, 119 A. 2d 917; Ward v. State, 219 Md. 559, 150 A. 2d 257.

In this case there was evidence to show that the defendant’s car first struck a somewhat glancing blow against a car which had stopped on a city street long enough to discharge a passenger, that the defendant swerved his car to the left, that as the defendant passed the stopped car, his car struck the deceased, that the impact threw the deceased’s body a distance of seventy feet, that the defendant’s car laid down skidmarks of eighty-six feet, and that the defendant had been drinking wine prior to the accident and that its effects immediately after the accident were noticeable. Even though-the deceased’s negligence in attempting to cross the street in the middle of the block and the fact that he had been drinking very likely contributed to the fatality, we think that the evidence was sufficient to warrant the conclusions that the defendant’s negligence was a contributing cause of the death of the victim of the accident and that the negligence of the defendant amounted to gross negligence. We therefore cannot find that the trial court was clearly in error in so concluding. See Duren v. State, 203 Md. 584, 102 A. 2d 277; Clay v. State, 211 Md. 577, 128 A. 2d 634.

Judgment affirmed.