City of Bremerton v. Corbett

• Decision Date: 21 August 1986
• Docket Number: No. 52272-3,52272-3
• Citation: 723 P.2d 1135,106 Wn.2d 569
• Parties: CITY OF BREMERTON, Respondent, v. Jack CORBETT, Petitioner. CITY OF BREMERTON, Respondent, v. Mary A. CARR, Petitioner. CITY OF BREMERTON, Respondent, v. Kim Duane LEBEDA, Petitioner. CITY OF BREMERTON, Respondent, v. Sherrie G. BURKHART, Petitioner.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

Page 569

106 Wn.2d 569

723 P.2d 1135

CITY OF BREMERTON, Respondent, v. Jack CORBETT, Petitioner.

CITY OF BREMERTON, Respondent, v. Mary A. CARR, Petitioner.

CITY OF BREMERTON, Respondent, v. Kim Duane LEBEDA, Petitioner.

CITY OF BREMERTON, Respondent, v. Sherrie G. BURKHART, Petitioner.

No. 52272-3.

Supreme Court of Washington En Banc.

Aug. 21, 1986.

Roof, Tolman & Kirk, Jeffrey L. Tolman, Poulsbo, for petitioner Corbett.

Crawford, McGilliard, Peterson & Yelish, Michael E. Klemetsrud, Port Orchard, for petitioners Carr, et al.

William Broughton, Bremerton City Atty., Mary B. Killian, Asst., Bremerton, for respondent.

BRACHTENBACH, Justice.

The City of Bremerton charged the petitioners, Mary A. Carr, Kim Duane Lebeda, and Sherrie G. Burkhart, with driving while intoxicated. RCW 46.61.502. Jack Corbett was charged with being in actual physical control of a vehicle while intoxicated. RCW 46.61.504. The charges arose from separate incidents.

The municipal court dismissed each charge. Relying upon State v. Hamrick, 19 Wash.App. 417, 576 P.2d 912 (1978), the court held that the City had not proved the corpus delicti thereby precluding the admission of any confession or admission. The Superior Court affirmed. The Court of Appeals reversed, thereby reinstating the charges. Bremerton v. Corbett, 42 Wash.App. 45, 708 P.2d 408 (1985). We affirm the Court of Appeals, but on slightly different grounds.

The facts of each case--assuming as we must the truth of the City's evidence and all reasonable inferences therefrom in a light most favorable to the City--may be summarized as follows:

Bremerton v. Carr

In the early morning hours of February 26, 1983, a Ford Pinto registered to Mary Carr was struck by a vehicle driven by Susan Sheldon. When Officer Scott arrived a few minutes later, Carr was standing between the two cars. Ms. Sheldon remained in her vehicle. There were two other persons in the Pinto. When the officer asked who had been driving the cars, Carr walked up to him, license in hand, and said, "I'm the driver of the Pinto." The officer noticed that Carr seemed intoxicated so he put her in his patrol car. The officer later asked the person seated in the front passenger side of the Pinto to move the car. She was unable to start the Pinto after several attempts. The Pinto had a manual transmission and she apparently tried to start the car without depressing the clutch pedal or putting it in neutral. The officer had no trouble starting and moving the car.

Bremerton v. Burkhart

At about 11:30 p.m. on March 27, 1983, a car towing a small trailer failed to negotiate a corner and went over an embankment. Moments after hearing the noise of the accident, a witness observed a bystander helping a woman with a small child out of the passenger side of the car and up the embankment to the street. The bystander returned to the car and helped another woman up the embankment.

When Officer Johnson arrived at the scene of the accident shortly thereafter, there was no one near the car. He determined that Sherrie Burkhart was the registered owner of the car. Burkhart was contacted at her residence and brought back to the accident scene, where she then admitted that she had been driving the car at the time of the accident.

Earlier in the evening Burkhart had dropped off her boyfriend, Mark Sarber, at their residence and had driven off with their small child and Sarber's sister, who had only been in Bremerton for a week and was relatively unfamiliar with the city. Burkhart returned to the house later that evening on foot carrying their child. She was crying and told Sarber that she had been in a wreck. The accident had occurred two blocks from the house.

Bremerton v. Lebeda

On April 24, 1982, Officer Carver was dispatched to investigate a 2-car collision. Both of the vehicles, a GMC pickup truck and a Mercury, were extensively damaged in the left front area.

Although neither vehicle was occupied when he arrived, Officer Carver contacted three people who were near the scene of the accident: Kim Lebeda, Jack Harper and a Mr. Parker. Lebeda and Parker were assisting Harper, who was bleeding profusely from head injuries. On three occasions, Harper tried to walk toward the Mercury, which had a shattered windshield and a bloodstained driver's compartment, including some hair and blood on the windshield. The pickup truck was registered to Lebeda, who lived a few blocks from the accident site. Officer Carver observed that Lebeda had freshly bruised and scraped knees and that his eyes were red and his speech was slurred. Lebeda admitted that he had been driving the pickup. Parker, who was uninjured and said he was just walking by, was questioned and allowed to leave.

Bremerton v. Corbett

At approximately 11 p.m. on the evening of March 17, 1983, Officer Long noticed a car stopped at an intersection in the inside lane of a busy city street. Jack Corbett was looking under the hood. The officer then saw Corbett get into the driver's seat. Officer Long approached the vehicle. Although he did not see any keys in the ignition, he noticed that the ignition switch was on. The keys were found on the car floor near the driver's seat. No other person was near the car. The officer observed that Corbett appeared intoxicated. Corbett admitted that he had been driving the car.

In each of these cases, which were consolidated on appeal, the City sought to introduce petitioners' admissions of driving into evidence. However, the municipal court, in dismissing the charges in each case, held that the City had presented insufficient evidence of the corpus delicti independent of petitioners' statements, thus precluding their admission into evidence. The Court of Appeals reversed. It held that corroborating independent evidence of the corpus delicti is required "only for admissions elicited by police questioning in circumstances requiring Miranda warnings." Bremerton v. Corbett, supra at 51, 708 P.2d 408. Consequently, the court concluded that the City had in each case presented sufficient evidence of corpus delicti.

We affirm. Although we agree with petitioners that the Court of Appeals erred in holding that only confessions or admissions elicited in a Miranda setting need be corroborated, we conclude that the City adduced sufficient prima facie evidence of the corpus delicti independent of petitioners' admissions.

Corpus delicti usually consists of two elements: (1) an injury or loss (e.g., death or missing property) and (2) someone's criminal act as the cause thereof. To sustain a conviction, there also must be proof that the defendant was the actor. State v. Meyer, 37 Wash.2d 759, 763, 226 P.2d 204 (1951). Proof of the identity of the person who committed the crime is not part of the corpus delicti, which only requires proof that a crime was committed by someone.

However, State v. Hamrick, supra, recognized that proof of the corpus delicti in a case charging driving or being in physical control of a vehicle while intoxicated differs from many crimes where identity is not an element of the corpus delicti. Hamrick, 19 Wash.App. at 419, 576 P.2d 912. Proof that a car ran off the road, caused an accident or stopped in a traveling lane does not establish that an element of the offense was committed. Likewise, proof that someone was intoxicated does not prove that that person drove or was in control of the car. Inherent in the offense is the requirement that the intoxicated person was the driver or was in control. The corpus delicti cannot be proved without proving someone's criminal agency which in turn requires identification of a particular individual who is under the influence. Thus, as in Hamrick, the corpus delicti of the offenses charged here cannot be established absent proof connecting the petitioners with operation or control of a vehicle while intoxicated.

Petitioners contend that the City failed to introduce sufficient evidence of the corpus delicti independent of their admissions of driving. This argument involves application of the so-called "corpus delicti rule."

An oft-cited and traditional statement of this rule, as adopted in Washington, is found in State v. Meyer, supra:

The confession of a person charged with the commission of a crime is not sufficient to establish the corpus delicti, but if there is independent proof thereof, such confession may then be considered in connection therewith and the corpus delicti established by a combination of the independent proof and the confession.

The independent evidence need not be of such a character as would establish the corpus delicti beyond a reasonable doubt, or even by a preponderance of the proof. It is sufficient if it prima facie establishes the corpus delicti.

(Citations omitted.) Meyer, 37 Wash.2d at 763-64, 226 P.2d 204. This requirement of independent proof of the corpus delicti is equally applicable to a defendant's extrajudicial confessions and admissions. ¹ See State v. Hamrick, 19 Wash.App. 417, 419, 576 P.2d 912 (1978).

Here the City sought to rely upon petitioners' admissions of driving to establish the corpus delicti of the offenses of driving or being in physical control of a vehicle while intoxicated. It was thus incumbent upon the City to introduce prima facie evidence of the corpus delicti independent of petitioners' admissions.

In applying the corpus delicti rule, however, the Court of Appeals initially held that not all admissions need be corroborated; corroboration is required only for those statements elicited by police questioning in circumstances requiring Miranda warnings--i.e., in a custodial police interrogation. See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694, 10 A.L.R.3d 974 (1966). Consequently, the Court of Appeals considered the admissions of petitioners Carr and Burkhart in determining whether there was prima facie evidence of the corpus delicti. Petitioners contend that this was error. We agree.

The Court of...