Rollins v. State
| Decision Date | 25 February 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. CA CR 08-608.,CA CR 08-608. |
| Parties | Vance B. ROLLINS, Jr., Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. |
| Court | Arkansas Court of Appeals |
Jack T. Lassiter, and Erin C. Couch, Little Rock, for appellant.
Dustin McDaniel, Att'y Gen., by: Leaann J. Irvin, Ass't Att'y Gen., Little Rock, for appellee.
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Vance Rollins appeals his two manslaughter convictions that followed an automobile accident resulting in the deaths of Nina and Lawrence Humphrey. He raises several arguments, including insufficiency of evidence, erroneous denial of a motion in limine, and improper admission of evidence.1 However, the essential question on appeal is whether the proof presented at trial established that Rollins was criminally reckless, a required element of the manslaughter offense. After a careful review of the record and relevant case law, we conclude that it does not. As such, we modify the judgment of conviction to the lesser-included
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offense of negligent homicide and sentence Rollins to the maximum allowed by law on each count.
The trial testimony painted a clear picture of the events immediately preceding this tragic and fatal automobile accident, which claimed the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey. Just before the accident, Rollins tailgated a vehicle driven by O.J. Williams for approximately fifteen miles. Rollins also drove erratically, repeatedly coming up on Williams's bumper and then falling back a long distance when Williams slowed in hopes that Rollins would pass. Williams eventually pulled off the road at a CCC camp so that Rollins would pass him. Linda Brewer, who is a nurse, testified that she was traveling north on Highway 7 behind the Humphreys' vehicle at the time of the collision. She observed Rollins's vehicle in the oncoming lane of traffic. She noted that Rollins neither slowed nor swerved prior to the collision. Faith Miller, Ms. Brewer's daughter who was traveling with her, testified that, just prior to the collision, she saw Rollins look over his right shoulder.
Following the collision, Brewer and Miller exited their vehicle to render aid. Brewer assisted Rollins in his attempt to free his passenger from the wreckage. Later, Brewer observed Rollins walking and looking around. After she approached him, she saw him drop some green pills onto the ground. Brewer suggested that Rollins lie down; she saw green pills underneath him at one point after he raised up. Brewer collected several of these pills and tendered them to the police who arrived on the scene.
Trooper Greg McNeese with the Arkansas State Police testified that a Perry County sheriff's deputy gave him the green pills, which he placed in an envelope and secured in his
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vehicle. He also stated that he found a black bag in the front seat of Rollins's vehicle that contained clothes, toiletries, and a black case with three pipes in it. Christa Hall, a forensic chemist with the Arkansas State Crime Lab, testified that the green pills recovered at the scene were hydrocodone and acetaminophen and that the three pipes recovered from Rollins's vehicle tested positive for cocaine and procaine.
Becky Carlisle, a forensic toxicologist with the Arkansas State Crime Lab, testified that the blood samples taken from Rollins tested positive for a detectible amount of cocaine and sertraline, an antidepressant. However, she acknowledged that the blood sample contained less than .05 micrograms per milliliter, the minimum that will register when tested. Carlisle conceded that she could not accurately estimate how long the substances had been in Rollins's system prior to the collision or whether that level of cocaine in the blood would interfere in any way with his ability to function normally. Carlisle also confirmed that Rollins's blood sample did not contain hydrocodone or acetaminophen.
At the conclusion of the State's evidence, Rollins moved for a directed verdict, arguing that the State failed to provide substantial evidence of the element of recklessness. The trial court denied the motion, but agreed to instruct the jury on the lesser-included offense of negligent homicide. Ultimately, the jury found Rollins guilty on two counts of manslaughter and sentenced him to two consecutive four-year terms in the Arkansas Department of Correction.
We first address Rollins's argument that there was insufficient evidence to support
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his manslaughter convictions on the basis that there was no evidence that he acted recklessly. Rollins was charged with manslaughter pursuant to Ark.Code Ann. § 5-10-104(a)(3) (Repl. 2006), which provides that a person commits manslaughter if he recklessly causes the death of another person. Arkansas Code Annotated § 5-2-202(3) (Repl.2006) provides:
A person acts recklessly with respect to attendant circumstances or a result of his conduct when he consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur. The risk must be of a nature and degree that disregard thereof constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the actor's situation.
Thus, the relevant inquiry is whether the evidence in the instant case demonstrated that Rollins consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk.
The trial evidence established that Rollins was not intoxicated at the time of the accident. This is a closed question. At the time of the accident his system contained none of the substances found in the green pills that he attempted to hide immediately after the accident; he had less than a measurable amount of cocaine in his system; and the mere presence of an illegal substance in trace quantity does not amount to a per se showing of impairment. The fact that Rollins was neither intoxicated nor impaired was evidenced by the fact that the trial court did not instruct the jury on the felony version of negligent homicide, which contains the element of intoxication.
Despite the absence of proof relating to Rollins's drug-related impairment, the State
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did introduce proof that he tailgated, looked backward at the bend of a turn, crossed the center line, and drove erratically. Certainly, these acts are all careless, and in the aggregate they go beyond mere inattentiveness. However, in the context of our case law relating to the imposition of criminal liability for deaths caused by automobile accidents, we are convinced that Rollins's actions constitute negligence, not recklessness.
Our supreme court's analysis in Hoyle v. State, 371 Ark. 495, 268 S.W.3d 313 (2007), supports our conclusion. In this manslaughter case, the court thoroughly examined the threshold "recklessness" required to satisfy this element of the crime:
At trial, James Gann testified that he believed Hoyle almost ran another vehicle off the road, that Hoyle was extremely talkative at one point and then totally silent immediately prior to the accident, that Hoyle never braked immediately before striking the Dean motor home, and that Hoyle did not attempt to assist any of the victims at the scene of the accident. Trooper Adams testified that his investigation revealed that Hoyle's truck was originally traveling southbound, while the Dean vehicle was headed northbound, when Hoyle's vehicle crossed the center line and hit the Dean vehicle at a forty to forty-five degree angle. According to Corporal Adams, the impact of Hoyle's vehicle pushed the Dean vehicle backwards before Hoyle's vehicle went through the motor home. Adams also stated that while investigating the crash, he noticed Hoyle sitting by himself on a hill near the accident scene. This evidence coupled with the toxicology report that established that Hoyle had methamphetamine in his system at the time of the accident and Dr. Pappas's expert opinion that .221 micrograms per milliliter of methamphetamine without a doubt had a negative effect on the driving in this case clearly demonstrates that Hoyle acted recklessly in driving while under the influence of methamphetamine.
We simply do not agree that the jury had to resort to speculation or conjecture in order to conclude that the methamphetamine in his system so altered his motor skills that it was the cause of the wreck. The foregoing evidence constituted substantial evidence that Hoyle recklessly caused the deaths of Hilda Dean and Gary Dean, in that he consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk that death might occur if he operated a commercial vehicle after ingesting methamphetamine, and the
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disregard thereof constituted a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in Hoyle's situation.
Id. at 503-04, 268 S.W.3d 313, 319 (2007).
Unlike the facts presented in Hoyle, here, there was no testimony that Rollins seemed impaired or engaged in erratic behavior following the accident. And, there was no evidence that he was intoxicated. These two distinctions are crucial because, according to the holding in Hoyle, this is the type of "substantial" evidence required to support the reckless element of manslaughter when the charged death results from an automobile accident. The Hoyle case tells us that evidence of driving while intoxicated or impaired, or exhibiting extraordinarily erratic behavior, can be sufficient to show one has engaged in a conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that would cause death. However, absent such evidence, we cannot sustain a finding that Rollins was driving knowing that he could cause death, and by continuing to operate his vehicle, he evidenced a conscious...
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Rollins v. State
...affirming his convictions but modifying the judgment to reflect the lesser-included offense of negligent homicide. Rollins v. State, 2009 Ark.App. 110, 302 S.W.3d 617. The State petitioned for review from the court of appeals' opinion, arguing that it was decided contrary to this court's pr......