State v. Doub Iii

95 P.3d 116 (2004)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D, a fine and outstanding citizen, drank six beers at a party for his softball team. When leaving the party, he struck two parked cars but left the scene because he didn’t want to answer for being drunk while driving. He then consumed more alcohol and crack cocaine and about 2 hours later, while driving at a very excessive speed drove his pickup into the rear of a Cadillac in which 9-year-old Jamika Smith was a passenger. He drove up on top of the Cadillac driving it down into the pavement, and ultimately propelling it off the street and into a tree. D offered no aid to the victims, left the scene of the accident, and initially denied any involvement in the collision, suggesting that his pickup had been stolen. Some 15 hours after the collision, Smith died as a result of blunt traumatic injuries caused by the collision. Six months after the events, D admitted to a former girlfriend that he had a confrontation with his second ex-wife the evening of the collision, had been drinking alcohol and smoking crack, and had subsequently caused the collision. She reported him to the police. D was charged with: (1) second-degree depraved heart murder, with lesser included offenses of involuntary manslaughter and vehicular homicide; (2) involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, with the lesser included offense of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs; and (3) leaving the scene of an injury accident. D was found guilty of all three primary offenses, but the court later dismissed the second offense of involuntary manslaughter. D appealed challenging the sufficiency of evidence to support his conviction of second-degree depraved-heart murder.