Pedigo v. State
| Decision Date | 13 April 2020 |
| Docket Number | Court of Appeals Case No. 19A-CR-1848 |
| Citation | 146 N.E.3d 1002 |
| Parties | Ruel P. PEDIGO, III, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
Attorney for Appellant: Marc Lopez, The Marc Lopez Law Firm, Indianapolis, Indiana
Attorneys for Appellee: Curtis T. Hill, Jr., Attorney General of Indiana, Courtney L. Staton, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, Indiana
[1] Ruel P. Pedigo, III ("Pedigo") was convicted of reckless homicide,1 a Level 5 felony, causing death when operating a motor vehicle with a schedule I or II controlled substance in the blood2 as a Level 4 felony, and causing serious bodily injury when operating a motor vehicle with a schedule I or II controlled substance in the body3 as a Level 6 felony and was sentenced to an aggregate fifteen-year-sentence. Pedigo appeals his convictions and sentence and raises the following restated issues for our review:
[2] We affirm.
[3] On January 27, 2018, Patrick Bowman ("Bowman") and Sarah Fliehman ("Fliehman") were driving to the Columbus Bar to have dinner with their friends. Tr. Vol. III at 338.4 The couple was recently engaged and had just purchased a new cabin in Brown County. Id. at 337. On the way to dinner, they traveled eastbound on State Road 46 in Bartholomew County in their Mazda car and had to stop at a red light at the intersection of State Road 46 and Johnson Boulevard. Id. at 338. Shortly after their vehicle had come to a complete stop, Pedigo struck their Mazda from behind with his Ford F650 tow truck, which was loaded with another vehicle on its flatbed. Tr. Vol. II at 98-99, 151-52; Tr. Vol. III at 340.
[4] The collision created a chain reaction, which caused Bowman's car to collide with the other vehicles stopped at the red light. Tr. Vol. III at 261. When this chain reaction ended, the tow truck was positioned on top of the Mazda. Tr. Vol. II at 72, 207. Immediately after the accident, another individual involved in the accident called 911. Id. at 72. When law enforcement and paramedics arrived, they attended to the wreckage; Pedigo was still inside of the cab of his tow truck. Id. at 73, 82, 101, 163, 230.
[5] Upon his arrival, paramedic Michael Miles ("Miles") went to the driver's side of the Mazda to assess Bowman's injuries. Id. at 207. Bowman was unresponsive, and Miles observed that the Mazda had been crushed in around Bowman's body, pushing it against the steering wheel. Id. Based on the position of Bowman's body, it was difficult for Miles to provide care, but Miles was able to reach into the vehicle to check Bowman for a pulse and place an electrocardiogram ("EKG") on him, which registered that Bowman's heart was pulseless but that it may have had electrical activity. Id. at 207-08, 216. Miles directed law enforcement to cut Bowman out of the car to be certain that Bowman was deceased. Id. at 208. To gain access to Bowman, law enforcement officers had to remove the Mazda's roof, stabilize the tow truck because it was still sitting on top of the Mazda, and use a hydraulic ram to move the dashboard. Id. Once removed, Bowman's body was transported to an ambulance, where the paramedics were unable to detect any signs of life and determined that Bowman was deceased. Id. at 208, 216.
[6] Fliehman also suffered serious injuries in the accident and sustained a laceration from the top of her scalp to her neck, a severe concussion
, a broken nose, an abrasion on her eye, and a broken left arm. Tr. Vol. III at 341. She developed nerve damage which resulted in the right side of her face being paralyzed, needed more than twenty staples as a result of the laceration to her scalp, and had to undergo surgery on her left arm. Id. As a result of her broken nose, Fliehman lost her sense of smell and will require surgery in the future to improve her ability to breathe. Id. at 342.
[7] Sergeant Benjamin Goodin of the Columbus Police Department ("Sergeant Goodin") was the second officer to arrive on scene, and after staying with Fliehman until she could receive medical attention, he noticed that Pedigo had not exited his tow truck. Tr. Vol. II at 230. Concerned that he may be injured, Sergeant Goodin asked Officer John Morphew ("Officer Morphew") to check on Pedigo. Id. Officer Morphew approached the driver's side door of the tow truck and asked Pedigo if he had been injured. Id. at 163. Pedigo responded that he had some back pain but that he thought he was okay. Id. Officer Morphew asked Pedigo to exit the tow truck, and once he had exited, Pedigo told Officer Morphew that the accident occurred after he had "looked down and looked back up and saw the traffic in front of him had stopped." Id. at 164. Pedigo told the officer that he had "slammed on his brakes" but that the tow truck "didn't stop and skidded into the vehicles ahead of him." Id.
[8] Officer Morphew asked Pedigo if he had had anything to drink or had taken any medication, and Pedigo said he had not. Id. At that point, Officer Morphew asked Pedigo to submit to a horizontal gaze nystagmus test
but did not ask him to perform a walk-and-turn test or one-leg stand due to his back pain. Id. at 166. Before administering the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, Officer Morphew described the test and explained its instructions to Pedigo, who indicated that he understood them. Id. at 168. Instead of following the instructions to follow the officer's finger with his eyes without moving his head, Pedigo merely stared straight ahead. Id. at 167-68. After Officer Morphew had repeated the instructions four or five times, Pedigo followed the instructions, and Officer Morphew did not observe any clues to indicate that Pedigo was intoxicated. Id. at 168.
[9] Officer Morphew asked each driver at the scene to submit to a portable breath test. Id. at 169. None of the drivers, including Pedigo, tested positive for the presence of alcohol. Id. However, after speaking with Sergeant Goodin, Officer Morphew was instructed to ask Pedigo for his consent to submit to a chemical test, specifically, a blood draw. Id. Officer Morphew read Pedigo the Indiana Implied Consent law concerning fatal crashes and obtained Pedigo's consent to conduct a blood draw. Id. at 170-71. Officer Morphew then transported Pedigo to Columbus Regional Hospital to have the blood draw done. Id. at 171.
[10] At the hospital, Pedigo was asked to complete additional documentation to indicate that he consented to the blood draw, and Officer Morphew observed him sign the form and have his blood drawn. Id. at 173-74. Alexa Nemeth ("Nemeth"), a phlebotomist at Columbus Regional Hospital performed the blood draw on Pedigo. Tr. Vol. III at 289-90, 292. After consenting to the blood draw, Pedigo provided a second statement to Officer Morphew regarding how the crash occurred. Tr. Vol. II at 174-75. In that statement, Pedigo told Officer Morphew that he had just left the interstate and was heading eastbound on State Road 46 when he looked down at his GPS. Id. at 175. When he looked back up, a "dark colored car" suddenly changed lanes in front of him, which caused him to collide with that "dark colored car" and the remaining cars stopped at the light. Id.
[11] Because in his first statement Pedigo had stated that his tow truck had failed to stop despite him applying the brakes, Indiana State Trooper Seth Davidson inspected the tow truck for abnormalities and found no issues with the tow truck that would have contributed to the accident. Id. at 199-200, 202. Kelly Holley ("Holley"), a certified crash reconstructionist with the Columbus Police Department, also conducted an investigation into the cause of the accident and concluded that the primary cause of the accident was Pedigo's unsafe speed. Id. at 246-47; Tr. Vol. III at 260. Holley concluded that Pedigo did not "operate or travel at a speed that was prudent to adjust to changing traffic" or to accommodate "the weather conditions at the time." Tr. Vol. III at 260. Holley requested a search warrant for the tow truck's electronic control module, commonly referred to as the "black box," and the information she obtained confirmed that Pedigo had not been operating the tow truck at a safe speed to avoid colliding with other vehicles in the roadway. Id. at 267.
[12] Pedigo's blood sample was sent to the Indiana State Department of Toxicology where it was analyzed. Id. at 296. The analysis revealed that Pedigo had THC-COH, an inactive metabolite of THC, in his blood, and further testing also revealed that he had amphetamine
and methamphetamine at four times the therapeutic level in his blood at the time of the accident. Id. at 322, 325, 329-30.
[13] On May 17, 2018, the State charged Pedigo with Level 5 felony reckless homicide, Level 4 felony causing death when operating a motor vehicle with a schedule I or II controlled substance in the blood, and Level 6 felony causing serious bodily injury when operating a motor vehicle with a schedule I or II substance in the body. Appellant's App. Vol. II at 12-14. On November 13, 2018, Pedigo filed a motion to suppress, alleging that the results of his blood draw should be suppressed. Id. at 17. On November 20, 2019, a suppression hearing was held, and at the conclusion of the hearing, Pedigo argued that Indiana Code section 9-30-7-3 prohibits an officer from offering a subsequent...
To continue reading
Request your trial