Bullock v. State

• Decision Date: 27 June 2001
• Docket Number: No. 277, 1999.,277, 1999.
• Citation: 775 A.2d 1043
• Parties: Lester R. BULLOCK, Defendant Below, Appellant, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below, Appellee.
• Court: Supreme Court of Delaware

775 A.2d 1043

Lester R. BULLOCK, Defendant Below, Appellant, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below, Appellee.

No. 277, 1999.

Supreme Court of Delaware.

Submitted: November 28, 2000.

Decided: June 27, 2001.

Raymond M. Radulski and James D. Nutter [argued], Office of the Public Defender, Wilmington, for appellant.

Kim Ayvazian, Department of Justice, Georgetown, for Appellee.

Before VEASEY, C.J., WALSH, HOLLAND, BERGER and STEELE, JJ.

STEELE, Justice for the Majority:

On October 22, 1998, a jury convicted Lester B. Bullock of manslaughter arising from a collision between Jennifer Alleger's car and Bullock's truck at the intersection of Rt. 40 and Pleasant Valley Road. The State charged Bullock with manslaughter for recklessly causing the death of Alleger "by driving at an excessive speed while impaired by alcohol which resulted in a collision with another car."¹ At trial, at the conclusion of the State's case, Bullock moved for a judgment of acquittal and argued that the State's evidence showed that Alleger's disregard of a red light as he entered the intersection on a yellow light primarily caused the collision that resulted in her death. The Superior Court denied the motion. The jury, following the Court's instructions, convicted Bullock of manslaughter and the Court sentenced him to five years at Level V, suspended after one year for declining levels of probation. Bullock filed a timely notice of appeal.

On appeal, Bullock argues that no reasonable juror could conclude that he proximately caused the accident because Alleger became the sole proximate cause of the accident when she disregarded a red light and drove her car into his path after his truck had entered the intersection controlled by a yellow light. Bullock also argues that the Superior Court erred by giving the jury an "unavoidable accident" instruction instead of an "accident" instruction and by failing to instruct the jury properly on reckless causation in accordance with 11 Del. C. § 263.² We conclude: (1) that the failure to instruct the jury in accordance with Section 263 deprived Bullock of an instruction that contained an essential principle of law necessary to decide the factual issue presented to them; and (2) that the Superior Court erred in giving an "unavoidable accident" instruction that was not supported by the facts of the case and that undermined the jury's ability to intelligently perform its duty. Accordingly, we REVERSE the judgment of the Superior Court and REMAND this case for a new trial.

I

On December 8, 1997 at approximately 6:25 p.m., Bullock drove his pick-up truck westward on Route 40 in New Castle County. As he approached the intersection of Route 40 and Pleasant Valley Road, the traffic control signal in front of him at the intersection turned yellow. At the same time, Alleger waited in a turn lane on eastbound Route 40, facing a solid red arrow, preparing to cross the westbound lanes of Route 40 and turn north onto Pleasant Valley Road. Bullock increased his speed through the intersection. As he drove through the intersection, Alleger entered the intersection against the red signal and collided with Bullock's truck.

Delaware State Police Trooper Raymond Shatley responded to the accident. He found Alleger's car on Route 40 approximately 100 feet west of the intersection. He found Bullock's truck on Route 40 farther west of the intersection than Alleger's car. Shatley determined that Alleger was dead at the scene.

Shatley questioned Bullock. He detected an odor of alcohol on Bullock and noticed that Bullock's eyes were glassy. Bullock told Shatley that he had consumed three beers earlier that afternoon. Although Bullock passed several field sobriety tests including a portable breathalyzer test, his performance on other tests led Shatley to believe that Bullock was impaired by alcohol. Bullock slurred the letters of the alphabet beyond recognition and failed the one-leg-stand and finger-to-nose tests. Shatley also administered the horizontal gaze nystagmus and the walk-and-turn. The results of these tests supported Shatley's suspicion that Bullock was impaired by alcohol.

Paramedics transported Bullock to the Christiana Emergency Room to draw a blood sample to determine his blood-alcohol level. Approximately two hours after the accident, Bullock's blood-alcohol level registered .079 grams per deciliter, a reading below the legal level for intoxication. Shatley did not cite Bullock for driving under the influence of alcohol. The State, however, arrested Bullock for criminally negligent homicide and then sought an indictment for manslaughter.³

Delaware State Police Officer Philip Strohm, Jr., an accident reconstruction expert, arrived at the accident scene approximately one hour after the accident. Strohm testified that Bullock faced a yellow light when he proceeded through the intersection and that Alleger faced a solid red arrow. He opined that Alleger attempted to cross Route 40 onto Pleasant Valley Road. Strohm determined that Bullock clearly had the right of way at the time of the accident. Strohm determined that only 300 feet separated the two vehicles when Alleger initially pulled out onto Route 40 and that Bullock spanned this distance in three seconds. According to Strohm, a normal person can perceive and react to a danger in 1½ seconds. At fifty-five mph, a driver would travel 120 feet before perceiving and reacting to a danger and would travel another 260 feet before the car could come to a complete stop. He determined that at the point of impact, Alleger was travelling slightly above 11 mph while Bullock was traveling approximately 77 mph. Markings on the road indicated that Bullock steered right in an attempt to avoid the collision. Strohm concluded that, while Bullock's speed and consumption of alcohol may have contributed to the accident, "the primary contributing circumstance of the collision was Ms. Alleger passing a red light."⁴

II

The primary issue in this case is whether the Superior Court properly instructed the jury on reckless causation. A secondary issue is whether the Superior Court erred when it instructed the jury on "unavoidable accident." Bullock's counsel, however, did not object to the unavoidable accident instruction given or proffer an instruction based upon Section 263. Therefore, we review for plain error. Plain error exists when the error was "so clearly prejudicial to [a defendant's] substantial rights as to jeopardize the very fairness and integrity of the trial process."⁵

"The primary purpose of jury instructions is to define with substantial particularity the factual issues and clearly to instruct the jury as to the principles of law [that] they are to apply in deciding the factual issues presented in the case before them."⁶ "A trial court must give instructions to a jury as required by evidence and law whether the parties request the instruction or not."⁷ Indeed, "[t]he trial judge is charged with the responsibility for instructing the jury. This is not controlled by the parties as their function and duty is to bring to the court's attention the instructions they consider applicable and the reasons why they should be given."⁸ "As a general rule, a defendant is not entitled to a particular instruction, but he does have the unqualified right to a correct statement of the substance of the law."⁹ And "[w]hile `some inaccuracies and inaptness in statement are to be expected in any charge,' this Court will reverse if the alleged deficiency in the jury instructions `undermined ... the jury's ability to intelligently perform its duty in returning a verdict."'¹⁰

At trial, the Superior Court instructed the jury that:

The indictment charges ... that Lester Bullock ... did recklessly cause the death of Jennifer Alleger by driving at an excessive speed while impaired by alcohol and which resulted in a collision with another car.

Delaware defines the offense of manslaughter in pertinent part as follows: A person is guilty of manslaughter when he recklessly causes the death of another person. In order to find the defendant guilty of manslaughter, you must find that each of the following elements have been established beyond a reasonable doubt: One, the defendant caused the death of Jennifer Alleger.

By this I mean the defendant must have brought about this death which would not have occurred but for such act. And two, the defendant acted recklessly.

A person acts recklessly with respect to death when he is aware of and consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that death will result from his conduct. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that the person's disregard of it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a reasonable person would observe in the situation.

You must find that the person was aware of and consciously disregarded the risk that his conduct would cause death and also that the risk was so great that a reasonable person under the circumstances would have acted otherwise to avoid the risk.

And three, the defendant was driving at an excessive speed while impaired by alcohol which resulted in a collision with another car.¹¹

Bullock argues that while this instruction includes the definition of causation found in 11 Del. C. § 261,¹² the instruction is incomplete because the trial court should have instructed the jury that "reckless causation is not established if the actual result [Alleger's death] is outside the risk of which [Bullock] was aware [Alleger illegally disregarding a red arrow] ..." and that a failure to include this instruction constituted plain error.

Bullock argues that under Delaware law, when recklessness is an element of the crime, the State must prove that the defendant was a proximate cause of an injury. Bullock argues that no reasonable juror could conclude that he proximately caused the collision because Alleger's negligence was an intervening and superseding cause of the collision. Therefore...