State v. Garcia-Cisneros
| Decision Date | 03 May 2017 |
| Docket Number | A156387 |
| Citation | 397 P.3d 49,285 Or.App. 252 |
| Parties | STATE of Oregon, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Cinthya GARCIA-CISNEROS, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Oregon Court of Appeals |
Jesse Merrithew, Portland, argued the cause for appellant. With him on the brief was Levi Merrithew Horst LLP.
Jennifer S. Lloyd, Assistant Attorney General, argued the cause for respondent. With her on the brief were Ellen F. Rosenblum, Attorney General, and Anna M. Joyce, Solicitor General.
Before Armstrong, Presiding Judge, and Hadlock, Chief Judge, and Egan, Judge.
Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for two counts of failure to perform the duties of a driver toward injured persons. ORS 811.705. On appeal, she assigns error to the trial court's denial of her motion for judgment of acquittal based on the insufficiency of the evidence.1 Defendant contends that the state failed to introduce sufficient evidence to prove her guilt because it did not introduce evidence that defendant knew of or had reason to know of the accident when she was still at the scene of the accident. We conclude that, based on our construction of ORS 811.705, the trial court erred in denying defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal. Accordingly, we reverse.
"When reviewing a trial court's denial of a motion for a judgment of acquittal, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the state." State v. Werner , 281 Or.App. 154, 156, 383 P.3d 875 (2016), rev. den. , 361 Or. 311 (2017). We state the facts consistently with that standard.
Defendant was driving home in her boyfriend's Nissan Pathfinder with her brother and her boyfriend. When defendant was about one block away from her house, defendant's brother urged her to drive through a large pile of leaves on the right side of the road. Defendant drove through the pile of leaves, and felt what she and the other passengers described as a "bump" when the front passenger-side tire hit the leaves. Defendant said that it felt "[l]ike if I went [over] a pothole." Defendant apologized to her boyfriend for hitting something with his car and he responded that "its fine, it's probably just a log or rock." Defendant continued driving down the road, turned right, and turned into her driveway. When defendant and the other passengers got out of the car, defendant's boyfriend and brother glanced at the front right side of the car and tire to see if anything was wrong, but did not notice any damage and went inside defendant's house.
Shortly after arriving home, defendant's brother took his bike to go to his girlfriend's house. On his way, defendant's brother heard a man—Robinson—screaming. He noticed that Robinson was on the phone standing next to the pile of leaves that they had driven through. Defendant's brother saw a little girl on the ground—she was slightly on the curb, not talking, and looked hurt. No police had arrived at the scene yet. Robinson and defendant's brother had a brief interaction, and defendant's brother went back to his house to tell defendant what had happened.
Robinson's two daughters had been raking leaves outside of their house. When Robinson went inside the house to put his camera away, he heard a car that sounded like it was going fast and a "thud." Robinson immediately started to look for his two daughters. He found them in the pile of leaves; one was still breathing, the other was not. Robinson was frantic. He called his wife and 9-1-1, and, before he hung up with the dispatcher, a police officer had arrived at the scene of the accident. One girl was pronounced dead at the scene, the other girl died the next day.
When defendant's brother told defendant that she had hit one or two little girls when she had driven through the pile of leaves, defendant did not believe him at first, then she became hysterical—she started to cry and hyperventilate. Defendant's brother and boyfriend examined the car with a flashlight but did not see any signs of an accident. Defendant's boyfriend drove his car to his house because he did not want defendant to get in trouble.
The next day, the police received a tip from defendant's neighbor—he explained that he had seen a young woman crying and two men examining a Nissan Pathfinder with a flashlight the night before. The police questioned defendant, and she eventually admitted her involvement in the accident. Defendant was charged with two counts of failure to perform duties of a driver. ORS 811.705.
At trial, after the close of the state's case, defendant moved for a judgment of acquittal, arguing that the state had failed to prove that defendant knew that the accident resulted in injury to the victims while she was at the scene of the accident, and that ORS 811.705 does not require a driver to return to the scene of the accident after learning that he or she was involved in an accident. The trial court denied defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal. The trial court concluded that "it's implicit under these particular facts that the defendant needed to * * * return" to the scene once she learned of the injury to the victims and "remain" there until the duties were performed. The jury convicted defendant of both counts of failure to perform duties of a driver.
On appeal, defendant renews her argument made in the trial court that, the state had failed to introduce sufficient evidence to prove her guilt because it did not introduce evidence that defendant knew of the accident when she was still at the scene of the accident. The state does not dispute defendant's assertion that she did not have the requisite knowledge that she had injured two people while she was at the scene of the accident. Rather, the state contends that the trial court ruled correctly, because "even a driver who is unaware that he or she has been in an accident until after driving away from the accident nonetheless is required to [return and] perform the other duties listed in ORS 811.705(1) as soon as the driver learns that the accident resulted in injuries." Accordingly, to resolve this case, we must discern whether ORS 811.705 requires a driver to return to the scene of the accident after learning that he or she was involved in an accident that results in injury or death to another person so that the driver can perform the duties under the statute. That dispute presents a question of statutory construction that we review as a matter of law. PGE v. Bureau of Labor and Industries , 317 Or. 606, 610-12, 859 P.2d 1143 (1993) ; see also State v. Stewart , 282 Or.App. 845, 848, 386 P.3d 688 (2016), rev. allowed , 361 Or. 311 (2017) ().
We resolve statutory construction questions through an inquiry into the text, context, and legislative history of the statute. State v. Gaines , 346 Or. 160, 171-72, 206 P.3d 1042 (2009). When statutory text includes words in common usage, they should be interpreted in accordance with their plain, natural, and ordinary meaning. PGE , 317 Or. at 611, 859 P.2d 1143. Further, any previous construction of the statute is relevant to our analysis. See State v. Bryan , 221 Or.App. 455, 459, 190 P.3d 470 (2008), rev. den. , 347 Or. 290, 219 P.3d 592 (2009) ().
We begin with the text of the statute. ORS 811.705 provides:
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