Beattie v. State

• Decision Date: 27 March 2014
• Docket Number: No. 765,Sept. Term, 2013.,765
• Citation: 216 Md.App. 667,88 A.3d 906
• Parties: Bruce John BEATTIE v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

216 Md.App. 667

88 A.3d 906

Bruce John BEATTIE

v.STATE of Maryland.

No. 765, Sept. Term, 2013.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

March 27, 2014.

Stephen R. Tully (Robert J. Tully, Seigel, Tully & Furrer, on the brief), Towson, MD, for Appellant.

Daniel J. Jawor (Douglas F. Gansler, Atty. Gen., on the brief), Baltimore, MD, for Appellee.

Panel: ZARNOCH, GRAEFF, HOTTEN, JJ.

GRAEFF, J.

Appellant, Bruce Beattie, was convicted in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County of criminally negligent manslaughter, reckless driving, negligent driving, failing to obey the driving rules for laned roadways, and making an illegal U-turn. The court sentenced appellant to one year incarceration for the conviction of criminally negligent manslaughter.¹

On appeal, appellant presents two questions for our review, which we have rephrased slightly:

1. Did the circuit court err in denying appellant's motion to dismiss the indictment on the ground that Md.Code (2011 Supp.) § 2–210 of the Criminal Law Article (“CL”), governing criminally negligent manslaughter, is unconstitutionally vague?

2. Was the evidence sufficient to support appellant's conviction for criminally negligent manslaughter?

For the reasons set forth below, we shall affirm the judgments of the circuit court.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In the early morning hours of October 22, 2011, appellant, a commercial tractor trailer driver, was driving eastbound on I–70, when he realized he was lost. He called Charles Cobb, a driver with the same company, for help with directions. Appellant called Mr. Cobb using a hands-free headset in his truck, and they spoke for approximately twenty minutes.

Appellant told Mr. Cobb that he was on I–70 east. Mr. Cobb advised that I–70 “dead ends into a park and ride,” and appellant needed to be driving on I–70 west. Appellant pulled over and attempted to locate a map, but he could not find one. He then looked around and saw a “center pull through” area in the median, leading to I–70 westbound.

Appellant was aware that he was not allowed to use the pull through area, which was a break in the grassy median for emergency vehicles.² He was wary, however, to get off the highway at an exit that might not take him in the direction he needed to go. Observing that there was “hardly any traffic on the road,” appellant looked around the bend in the road and saw that “everything was clear” for about a quarter of a mile. He was unable to see anything beyond that point due to the curve in the road behind him. Appellant decided to pull out from the shoulder of the road and cross the three lanes of I–70 east to turn around using the emergency access in the median. Before pulling out from the shoulder into the travel lanes, appellant looked for oncoming traffic, but after he pulled out, he was looking across the roadway toward the median.

As he pulled onto the highway to attempt to reach the median, appellant told Mr. Cobb that “two vehicles were bearing down on him at a high rate of speed.” He stated that one vehicle appeared to pass him, and then stated: “I think someone ran into me.” He felt the impact when his vehicle was halfway between the shoulder and the median. While still on the line with Mr. Cobb, appellant got out of the truck to inspect the damage, and upon returning stated: “I believe this person has passed. I gotta go. I have, I have to call 911.” The driver of the vehicle that collided with appellant's truck was Michael Neimus.

Mr. Neimus' friend, Raymond Bradshaw, testified that he met Mr. Neimus at 10:00 p.m. the evening of October 21, 2011, at Union Jack's, a restaurant and bar in Columbia. The two men stayed at the bar for several hours, talking and drinking, and they left “a little bit before closing,” just prior to 2:00 a.m. on October 22, 2011. Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. Neimus lived close to each other in Baltimore County, and after leaving the bar, they planned to go to one of their houses. They drove in their respective cars toward their homes. Mr. Neimus was driving in front of Mr. Bradshaw in the middle lane of I–70.

As they crossed over an overpass, Mr. Bradshaw saw a truck on the shoulder of the road. Immediately after he saw the truck, the truck “swung out” from the shoulder onto the roadway, leading him to believe the truck was taking a wide turn to get back onto the road. The truck, however, did not get into one of the eastbound lanes, but rather, it “kept on coming,” blocking “the whole highway.” Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. Neimus both swerved into the left lane to try to avoid the truck, and then swerved back to the right as the truck blocked the roadway. Because Mr. Bradshaw was several car lengths behind Mr. Neimus, he had more time to move to the right. Mr. Neimus could not get to the right of the truck fast enough, and he hit the back right side of the truck before driving off the road. Crash reconstruction experts at the scene determined that Mr. Neimus was less than a foot away from avoiding the truck completely.

Both Mr. Neimus and Mr. Bradshaw were driving approximately 65 miles per hour at the time they went over the overpass and saw the truck; the speed limit on that portion of I–70 was 65 miles per hour. After Mr. Bradshaw successfully swerved around the truck, he pulled over and stopped his car. He approached Mr. Neimus' vehicle and saw that Mr. Neimus' truck had fire underneath it, and Mr. Neimus' body had been pushed into the backseat. Mr. Bradshaw tried to get Mr. Neimus to respond, but he realized “it was done.”

Mr. Bradshaw stayed at the scene of the accident and waited for the police and paramedics to arrive. He gave oral and signed written statements to police describing what he observed. Investigators at the crash scene recovered one gram of marijuana from Mr. Neimus; Mr. Bradshaw was unaware that Mr. Neimus had marijuana on him. Mr. Neimus' blood alcohol level later was determined to be .14.³

Trooper Boyce, a member of the Maryland State Police, received a call at 2:57 a.m. regarding a collision on I–70 eastbound. When he arrived at the scene, he saw a Silver Chevy Tahoe on the right shoulder with “heavy front end damage” and a white tractor trailer in the emergency vehicle crossover. The fire department had all lanes on I–70 blocked due to the collision.

Trooper Boyce approached the Chevy Tahoe and saw that the driver, Mr. Neimus, was deceased. Thereafter, he spoke to appellant. Appellant initially told Trooper Boyce that he had pulled his truck onto the right shoulder in order to look at a map, and he was struck from the rear by another vehicle. Trooper Boyce asked appellant to memorialize his account on a Driver Witness Statement form, and appellant recounted the same version of events that he told Trooper Boyce.

Trooper Bedell, the Collision Investigator for the Maryland State Police Crash Team and an expert in the field of accident reconstruction, responded to the scene at approximately 4:30 a.m. He read the witness statements provided by appellant and Mr. Bradshaw. He then approached appellant, who was still at the scene, and they walked the area of the collision together. Appellant gave Trooper Bedell an account of the accident that matched his written statement, asserting that he had been on the right shoulder looking at a map with his hazard lights on, and as he began to pull out into traffic, a vehicle struck the rear of his trailer. After the impact, appellant pulled into the emergency vehicle crossover area. Trooper Bedell asked appellant why he had pulled into the crossover after the accident, rather than stopping in the right lane where he was struck, or pulling back onto the shoulder. Upon this line of questioning, appellant became nervous.

Trooper Bedell and appellant continued to walk the collision site, and when the area was cleared of emergency vehicles, Trooper Bedell was able to see various scrapes and other markings on the roadway. Based on the markings and other indications of where the impact had occurred, Trooper Bedell asked appellant whether he was intending to use the emergency vehicle crossover by driving from the right shoulder across the highway, requiring the two vehicles driven by Mr. Neimus and Mr. Bradshaw to swerve left and then right to avoid him. At that point, appellant stated that he wanted to revise his written statement.

Appellant's revised witness statement provided that, after he determined he was going east rather than west on I–70, he pulled onto the shoulder. He then pulled onto the roadway and began to make a U-turn. Prior to pulling out onto the road, appellant looked both ways and did not see any oncoming traffic. As he was turning, he did not see a car approach, but he felt an impact when the vehicle collided with the back of his truck. In response to a question on the form asking if the accident could have been avoided, appellant answered in the affirmative, stating that he “shouldn't have made the U-turn.”

At the accident scene, Trooper Bedell asked appellant whether he was on a cell phone at the time of the collision, and appellant replied that he was not. Trooper Bedell also asked appellant whether he was in possession of any hands-free devices, and appellant stated that he did not have a hands-free device inside his vehicle. Trooper Bedell subsequently searched appellant's truck pursuant to a warrant, and he did not locate a hands-free device.⁴ Later in his investigation of the collision, Trooper Bedell obtained appellant's cell phone records. He learned that appellant had made a cell phone call to Mr. Cobb prior to the collision that lasted approximately 20 minutes, continuing past the time of the collision.

At appellant's trial, Trooper Bedell described the accident scene. The portion of I–70 where the collision occurred was three lanes wide, with two shoulders. Each lane was 12 feet wide, and the shoulders were 9 to 10 feet wide; the roadway was 56 feet from edge to edge. Appellant's tractor trailer was approximately 70 feet long. Ap...