People v. Gonzalez

• Decision Date: 30 December 2011
• Citation: 2011 N.Y. Slip Op. 09730,90 A.D.3d 1668,935 N.Y.S.2d 826
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Luis A. GONZALEZ, Defendant–Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

2011 N.Y. Slip Op. 09730

90 A.D.3d 1668

935 N.Y.S.2d 826

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent,

v.Luis A. GONZALEZ, Defendant–Appellant.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department, New York.

Dec. 30, 2011.

Christine M. Cook, Syracuse, for Defendant–Appellant.

R. Michael Tantillo, District Attorney, Canandaigua (Jeffrey L. Taylor of Counsel), for Respondent.

PRESENT: SCUDDER, P.J., CENTRA, CARNI, LINDLEY, AND MARTOCHE, JJ.

MEMORANDUM:

Defendant appeals from a judgment convicting him following a jury trial of driving while intoxicated ( [DWI] Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1192[3] ) and driving while ability impaired by drugs ( [DWAI] § 1192[4] ), and convicting him, pursuant to a “stipulation,” of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the first degree (§ 511[3][a] ). According to the evidence presented at trial, two police officers in separate patrol cars observed defendant operating a motor vehicle while talking on his cellular telephone. They further observed that he was not wearing his seatbelt, and was improperly driving down the middle of the roadway. When the officers stopped defendant's vehicle, defendant pulled into a private driveway and, in the process of doing so, he struck the curb, drove onto the lawn, and failed to use his turn signal. Defendant then exited the vehicle but was ordered back into the vehicle. He had trouble re-entering the vehicle, and stated that he was in a lot of pain. The officers detected the odor of alcohol and noticed that defendant's eyes were bloodshot and glassy and that his speech was slurred. Defendant admitted that, approximately one hour prior to the traffic stop, he drank one beer and took two Vicodin, which were prescribed to him for pain. Defendant submitted to several field sobriety tests, which led the officers to conclude that he was intoxicated by alcohol or impaired by drugs. Defendant was arrested and refused to submit to a breathalyzer test or a blood test.

Defendant contends on appeal that the evidence at trial established only that he was allegedly impaired by the combined effects of alcohol and Vicodin, and that the convictions of DWI and DWAI must be reversed because the People failed to present the requisite evidence of impairment by each of the substances separately. We reject that contention, inasmuch as the evidence presented at trial is sufficient to establish that he was separately impaired by alcohol and by drugs.

A conviction of DWI under Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1192(3) may be based upon “evidence that [a defendant] failed all his field sobriety tests, smelled of alcohol, had glassy eyes and slurred his speech” ( People v. Scroger, 35 A.D.3d 1218, 825 N.Y.S.2d 631, lv. denied 8 N.Y.3d 950, 836 N.Y.S.2d 560, 868 N.E.2d 243). Here, the officers found that defendant exhibited all of those traits when he was pulled over. We thus conclude that the evidence is legally sufficient to support the DWI conviction, exclusive of the evidence presented in support of the DWAI conviction ( see generally People v. Bleakley, 69 N.Y.2d 490, 495, 515 N.Y.S.2d 761, 508 N.E.2d 672).

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