State v. Colorado, 2D03-2915.

• Decision Date: 29 December 2004
• Docket Number: No. 2D03-2915.,2D03-2915.
• Citation: 890 So.2d 468
• Parties: STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Nolberto COLORADO, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

890 So.2d 468

STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Nolberto COLORADO, Appellee.

No. 2D03-2915.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

December 29, 2004.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Donna S. Koch, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellant.

James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Judith Ellis, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellee.

NORTHCUTT, Judge.

Roberto Alvarez died in a one-car accident. The State, alleging that Nolberto Colorado was the driver of the car at the time, charged Colorado with DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide, and driving without a valid driver's license causing death. In this appeal the State challenges a pretrial ruling that excluded from evidence Colorado's admission that he was the driver on the ground that the State's evidence did not satisfy the requirements for corpus delicti. We agree with the circuit court and affirm.

The defense moved to exclude Colorado's admission, alleging that there were no witnesses who could identify Colorado as the driver, the car was not registered in Colorado's name, and there was no evidence that placed him behind the wheel. The defense asserted that the State was required to establish the elements of corpus delicti by independent proof before Colorado's admission could be introduced. At the motion hearing, the parties did not introduce any evidence. Instead, they proceeded on the following stipulated facts:

1. The victim listed in the information, Roberto Alvarez, died instantly as a result of the traffic accident that occurred on January 13, 2002 on Cornet [sic] Road in Hillsborough County. His body was found at the scene by the below witnesses.

2. The accident [occurred] as follows: the vehicle was traveling south on Cornet [sic] Rd. and drifted off of the south road edge. The driver attempted to steer the vehicle back onto the roadway which caused the vehicle to rotate counter clockwise. The vehicle skidded sideways, passenger side first, approximately two hundred and nine feet before beginning to tumble.

3. Witness Jose Aguilar did witness the accident, but at no time was able to identify the driver of the vehicle.

4. Witness Jose Aguilar did not see any person fleeing the scene of the accident after his arrival.

5. Witness Corina Luna arrived minutes after the accident and smelled an alcoholic beverage on the defendant's breath.

6. At the time of the accident, the vehicle was traveling at 51-58 MPH in a 50 MPH zone.

7. There were no other cars involved in the accident in question.

8. A medical blood draw of the defendant was conducted almost 145 minutes after the accident.

9. The defendant's legal blood/alcohol level, tested from the above-mentioned medical draw, was between .088 and .1018 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.

Colorado pointed out that no physical or circumstantial evidence placed either man behind the wheel of the car. The State argued that it did not need to establish all of the elements of the crime charged to meet its burden under the corpus delicti rule. Rather, it contended that because the stipulated facts showed that someone was speeding and someone died as a result of the accident, it established a corpus delicti for a crime similar to that contemplated by the charging document. The circuit court granted the defense motion and excluded Colorado's admission.

In a motion for rehearing, the State for the first time informed the court that Alvarez had a blood alcohol level of .18 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood. Based on this new fact, the State argued that the stipulated evidence showed either that Colorado committed DUI manslaughter or that Alvarez committed DUI with personal injury. But there was no evidence before the court that Colorado was injured in the accident. The circuit court denied the State's motion for rehearing.

Corpus delicti "means literally `the body of the crime.' It is regularly used in appellate decisions to mean the legal elements necessary to show that a crime was committed." State v. Allen, 335 So.2d 823, 824 n. 2 (Fla.1976). The State "must at least show the existence of each element of the crime" to authorize the introduction of a defendant's admission or confession. 335 So.2d at 825. To establish the corpus delicti, the State "must show that a harm has been suffered of the type contemplated by the charges (for example, a death in the case of a murder charge or a loss of property in the case of a theft charge), and that such harm was incurred due to the criminal agency of another. This usually requires the identity of the victim of the crime." Allen, 335 So.2d at 825 (footnote omitted).

Here, Colorado was charged with DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide, and driving without a valid driver's license causing death. The supreme court has stated that "[i]n order to establish the corpus delicti in a homicide case, it is necessary to prove three elements: first, the fact of death; second, the criminal agency of another person as the cause thereof; and third, the identity of the deceased person." Jefferson v. State, 128 So.2d 132, 135 (Fla.1961).

There are several Florida cases applying the corpus delicti rule to charges of driving under the influence, and they address the type of evidence necessary to place the defendant behind the wheel of a car that was involved in an accident before introducing that defendant's admission that he or she was the driver. In Allen, 335 So.2d 823, the defendant was convicted of two counts of manslaughter, one by culpable negligence and one pursuant to a statute prohibiting driving while intoxicated, after Curtis Black died in a car accident. The supreme court considered whether the evidence was sufficient to show that Allen was the driver "since there would have been no crime if Black had been the driver." 335 So.2d at 825. The evidence reflected that the car was owned by Allen, that Allen had been seen driving the car earlier in the day, and that Allen had been seen entering the driver's side of the car shortly before the accident. Also, the location of Black's body after the wreck suggested that he had occupied the passenger side, while Allen was found at the accident scene with his feet on the driver's side. The supreme court held that this circumstantial evidence was sufficient to lay the predicate for admitting Allen's confession, which was the only direct evidence placing him in the driver's seat at the time of the accident. In Colorado's case, no such circumstantial evidence places him in the driver's seat. In Burks v. State, 613 So.2d 441 (Fla.1993), the supreme court also held that the corpus delicti for DUI manslaughter was shown based on an officer's testimony that Burks' supervisor arrived at the accident scene and asked "if Burks could drive his vehicle away and continue on his run. This statement and the reasonable inferences that flow from it put Burks behind the wheel independently of his own statements." 613 So.2d at 444. No one in this case has identified Colorado as the driver.

The defendant in Anderson v. State, 467 So.2d 781 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985), was convicted of three counts of manslaughter by operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. He challenged on corpus delicti grounds the admission of his statement that he was driving the truck. In that case, a truck with three occupants ran a stop sign at high speed and hit a car. In the ensuing accident, the driver of the car and two of the truck's occupants were killed. The Third District held that the corpus delicti was established for the charge resulting from the death of the car's driver: "The manner in which the truck was driven to the point of impact, plus the beer cans and vodka bottle later found in and around the truck[,]" sufficed to show that the car's driver was killed due to the criminal agency of someone driving the truck in an intoxicated manner. 467 So.2d at 783. As to the charges stemming from the deaths of the two occupants of the truck, the question was more complicated because "it was essential to show on each count that the person allegedly killed was not the driver ..., for if he was, there would be no crime committed as the person allegedly killed would have merely killed himself." 467 So.2d at 784. But the court concluded that the evidence was sufficient because the decedents' bodies were found in front of the truck after the accident, whereas Anderson was found lying near the driver's side, showing that he "most likely had been driving the truck and that his two dead companions...