Charles v. Commonwealth

• Decision Date: 11 February 2014
• Docket Number: Record No. 2188–12–4.
• Citation: 63 Va.App. 14,753 S.E.2d 860
• Court: Virginia Court of Appeals
• Parties: Raymond Charles CASE v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia.

63 Va.App. 14

753 S.E.2d 860

Raymond Charles CASE

v.COMMONWEALTH of Virginia.

Record No. 2188–12–4.

Court of Appeals of Virginia,

Alexandria.

Feb. 11, 2014.

Alex N. Levay, for appellant.

Susan M. Harris, Assistant Attorney General (Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, II, Attorney General, on brief), for appellee.

Present: KELSEY, ALSTON and DECKER, JJ.

ALSTON, Judge.

Raymond Charles Case (appellant) appeals his conviction of driving while intoxicated in violation of Code § 18.2–266. On appeal, appellant alleges that the trial court (i) “erred in ruling that the Commonwealth proved each and every element of the offense charged beyond a reasonable doubt, and specifically that the trial court rejected any requirement on the part of the Commonwealth to prove that the appellant possessed the requisite mens rea to justify a conviction of the offense of Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol,” (ii) “erred in ruling that the Commonwealth's evidence excluded each and every reasonable hypothesis consistent with the innocence of the appellant and was consistent only with his guilt,” and (iii) “erred in ruling that the evidence supported the proposition that the appellant consciously moved from the passenger seat to the driver's seat and rested his foot on the brake after Ms. Wessels left and prior to Mr. Heaney's arrival thereby exposing appellant to a charge of DUI.” Finding no error, we affirm.

I. Background

On November 5, 2011, appellant and his friend, Deborah Wessels, attended a meeting at the Brunswick Eagles in Maryland. At some point in the evening, Ms. Wessels went out into the parking lot and observed appellant asleep in his pickup truck. Ms. Wessels was “a little worried” about appellant and tried to wake him. When Ms. Wessels was unable to awaken appellant, she decided to drive him home herself with another friend following behind so as to drive her back to the meeting afterwards.

After crossing into Virginia, Ms. Wessels testified that appellant began “slumping” and “leaning over” on her from the passenger side. According to Ms. Wessels, it became “really difficult for [her] to drive” and she could not stop appellant from leaning over on to her through the console between the two. Ms. Wessels testified that eventually she became “upset” and “disgusted” with appellant's behavior and she “panicked.” Ms. Wessels pulled over to the side of the road, got out of the truck, and returned with her friend to the meeting. Ms. Wessels testified that she left the motor of appellant's truck running.¹

Sometime thereafter, around 9:30 p.m., Mark Edward Heaney looked out his window on Dutchman Creek Road in Loudoun County and observed appellant's pickup truck in front of a neighbor's house stopped on an incline, facing downhill, with its brake lights illuminated. Mr. Heaney drove his car up to appellant's truck and looked through the window of the passenger's side. Mr. Heaney observed appellant sitting in the driver's seat, slumped over the steering wheel, with his chin on his chest and his eyes closed. Noticing that the driver's side window was rolled down, Mr. Heaney walked around to the driver's side and observed the truck was in gear and appellant's foot was on the brake. Mr. Heaney could not see whether appellant was breathing, and he called 911. He then reached into the vehicle, put the truck in park, and turned on the hazard lights.

Sergeant Williams was dispatched to the scene and upon arrival, observed appellant in the driver's seat of the pickup truck with the motor running. When Sergeant Williams asked appellant for his driver's license, he fumbled around looking for it. During the encounter Sergeant Williams smelled “a very strong odor of an alcoholic beverage about [appellant's] person.” Additionally, appellant was “somewhat unsteady on his feet,” his eyes were bloodshot, and his face was “very flushed.” Appellant admitted to Sergeant Williams that he had been drinking and submitted to a preliminary breath test. After the preliminary breath test, Sergeant Williams arrested appellant for driving under the influence and transported appellant to the detention center where appellant submitted to a chemical test of his breath alcohol content. The results showed appellant's blood alcohol content was 0.14% grams per 210 liters of breath.

A bench trial commenced on November 1, 2012. At the conclusion of the trial, the trial court found appellant guilty of driving under the influence. That same day, the trial court sentenced appellant to twelve months in jail with twelve months suspended, a fine of $250, suspended appellant's driver's license for twelve months, and placed him on probation for twelve months. The trial court also required appellant to enroll in the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program. This appeal followed.

II. Analysis

On appeal, appellant asserts three assignments of error. First, appellant argues that the trial court erred in determining that the Commonwealth's evidence excluded each reasonable hypothesis of appellant's innocence. Second, appellant contends that the trial court erred in rejecting appellant's argument that the Commonwealth was required to prove that appellant possessed the requisite mens rea to justify a conviction of the offense of driving under the influence of alcohol pursuantto Code § 18.2–266. Finally, appellant asserts that the trial court erred in ruling that the evidence sufficiently showed that appellant consciously moved from the passenger seat of the pickup truck to the driver's seat and placed his foot on the brake between the time when Ms. Wessels left him and Mr. Heaney found him. Finding no error, we affirm.

A. Reasonable Hypothesis of Innocence

First, appellant argues that the trial court erred in ruling that the Commonwealth's evidence excluded each and every reasonable hypothesis of innocence and was consistent only with appellant's guilt. We disagree.

“When the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction is challenged, it is [the appellate court's] duty to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth and to uphold the conviction unless it is plainly wrong or without evidence to support it.” Powers v. Commonwealth, 211 Va. 386, 388, 177 S.E.2d 628, 630 (1970) (citing Cameron v. Commonwealth, 211 Va. 108, 110, 175 S.E.2d 275, 276 (1970)).

“It is elementary that the burden is on the Commonwealth to prove every essential element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. The evidence must exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence and be consistent only with the guilt of an accused.” Id. “The fact finder, however, is entitled to draw inferences from proved facts, so long as the inferences are reasonable and justified.” Id. (citing Webb v. Commonwealth, 204 Va. 24, 34, 129 S.E.2d 22, 29 (1963); Bell v. Commonwealth, 11 Va.App. 530, 533, 399 S.E.2d 450, 452 (1991)). “When facts are equally susceptible to more than one interpretation, one of which is consistent with the innocence of the accused, the trier of fact cannot arbitrarily adopt an inculpatory interpretation.” Moody v. Commonwealth, 28 Va.App. 702, 706, 508 S.E.2d 354, 356 (1998) (citing Corbett v. Commonwealth, 210 Va. 304, 307, 171 S.E.2d 251, 253 (1969)). “ ‘However, the Commonwealth need only exclude reasonable hypotheses of innocence that flow from the evidence, not those that spring from the imagination of the defendant.’ ” Emerson v. Commonwealth, 43 Va.App. 263, 277, 597 S.E.2d 242, 249 (2004) (quoting Hamilton v. Commonwealth, 16 Va.App. 751, 755, 433 S.E.2d 27, 29 (1993)). “ ‘The statement that circumstantial evidence must exclude every reasonable theory of innocence is simply another way of stating that the Commonwealth has the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.’ ” Taylor v. Commonwealth, 61 Va.App. 13, 30, 733 S.E.2d 129, 138 (2012) (quoting Kelly v. Commonwealth, 41 Va.App. 250, 258, 584 S.E.2d 444, 447–48 (2003) ( en banc )).

In considering an appellant's alternate hypothesis of innocence in a circumstantial evidence case, we must determine “not whether there is some evidence to support” the appellant's hypothesis of innocence, but, rather, “whether any reasonable [fact finder], upon consideration of all the evidence, could have rejected [the appellant's] theories in his defense and found him guilty of [the charged crime] beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Emerson, 43 Va.App. at 277, 597 S.E.2d at 249 (quoting Commonwealth v. Hudson, 265 Va. 505, 513, 578 S.E.2d 781, 785 (2003)).

Appellant argues that the evidence showed that he was unconscious the entire time he was with Ms. Wessels and later when found by Mr. Heaney. With no evidence of what occurred after Ms. Wessels left and when Mr. Heaney found him, appellant contends that the Commonwealth's evidence failed to exclude reasonable hypotheses of innocence such as someone moving appellant from the passenger seat to the driver's seat while he was unconscious, or simply that appellant was unconscious the entire time, supporting appellant's defense of unconsciousness.²

From the evidence presented, the trial court found that

something happened to put him behind the wheel. You know, we can search for a hypothesis, but you know, common sense doesn't leave the court room in terms of reasonable inferences, and that is—it is not—I do not think it is a reasonable inference that someone came upon him and dragged him over and put him behind the wheel. We know he was on the passenger side. We know he was found on the driver's side, and he was operating the vehicle, his foot was on the brake according to the evidence, he was credible, and that the—saw brake lights, and that the car was in drive, and the motor was running. And, I just decline to speculate ... I think the reasonable inferences are in this particular case that—that he was left and that he changed positions, and then became the operator of the vehicle, and once he did that, I think that he is by Virginia law, guilty of driving under the influence.

We do not...