State v. Hinds

• Court: Washington Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: KENNEDY
• Citation: State v. Hinds, 936 P.2d 1135, 85 Wn.App. 474 (Wash. App. 1997)
• Decision Date: 24 March 1997
• Docket Number: No. 39232-8-I
• Parties: The STATE of Washington, Appellant, v. Jason Paul HINDS, Respondent.

Page 474

85 Wn.App. 474

936 P.2d 1135

The STATE of Washington, Appellant, v. Jason Paul HINDS, Respondent.

No. 39232-8-I.

Court of Appeals of Washington Division 1.

March 24, 1997.

Seth Aaron Fine, Prosecuting Atty. Office, Everett, for Respondent.

Elaine Winters, Washington Appellate Project, Seattle, for Appellant.

KENNEDY, Acting Chief Judge.

Forty-four-year-old Patricia Baggs died in a one-car accident as a result of eighteen-year-old Jason Paul Hinds's reckless driving. Hinds had been drinking whiskey given to him by Baggs, and was driving Baggs's car with her permission. He pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and received an exceptional sentence downward. The court concluded that Baggs was a willing participant in the offense to a significant degree because she provided alcohol to Hinds and then allowed him to drive her car. We agree with the State that there must be a causal connection between Baggs's conduct of furnishing the liquor and allowing Hinds to drive her car and Hinds's recklessness, in order to support a conclusion that she was a willing participant in the crime to a significant degree. We also agree that the court did not explicitly find the causal connection. Nevertheless, because support for such a connection exists in legislative policy, analogous case law, and, as conceded by the State during oral argument for this appeal, in the record, and because the trial court may have omitted an explicit finding based on a misunderstanding of the State's position with respect to that issue, we remand for clarification of the findings. If the court finds a causal connection between Baggs's conduct and Hinds's reckless driving, i.e., finds that both Baggs and Hinds participated in conduct that caused the vehicular homicide to occur, we affirm the exceptional sentence; if it does not, we reverse and require imposition of a standard range sentence.

FACTS

On the night of the accident, Hinds, his 15-year-old sister Becky and several other teen-agers gathered at Baggs's home, where they drank liquor that Baggs provided and consumed with them. Baggs drove Hinds to her home. Hinds later said that he had often consumed alcohol at Baggs's home and that he had been drinking since he was 16 years old. Becky left the party after a fight with her boyfriend. When she did not return, Hinds asked Baggs if she would help him look for her. Hinds and Baggs (Hinds was driving) drove around in Baggs's car for a while, then returned to her home to see if Becky had returned. Baggs went inside the house, came back to the car and said, "Let's go." Clerk's Papers at 47. Hinds later learned that Becky was at Baggs's home when Baggs went back inside, but said that Baggs did not tell him that Becky was there.

Hinds drove on a two-lane country road with a posted speed limit of 35 mph. He failed to stop at a stop sign while traveling at an estimated speed of 100 mph, and lost control of the car. The car became air-borne and eventually came to rest on its top, after striking a parked car and several trees. Baggs, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected from the vehicle. Her head struck a tree and she landed about 30 feet from the point of collision. Hinds, who wore a seat belt, suffered only minor injuries.

Several people heard the collision and came to assist. One person detected a slight odor of intoxicants coming from the car. Another heard Hinds talking and thought that he sounded like he was drunk. Hinds admitted to investigating officers that he had been drinking whiskey for 1 to 3 hours before driving. A sample of Hinds's blood taken nearly 2 hours after the accident revealed a blood alcohol level of .05.

The State charged Hinds with vehicular homicide, in violation of RCW 46.61.520(1)(b), for unlawfully operating a motor vehicle in a reckless manner and causing the death of Patricia Baggs. Hinds pleaded guilty. In his plea statement, Hinds said that he drove Baggs's car "at her request." Clerk's Papers at 84. He faced a standard range sentence of 21 to 27 months.

Hinds told the author of the pre-sentence report that the combination of worrying about Becky, " 'a few shots' " of whiskey and the earlier consumption of several allergy pills contributed to his " 'not totally coherent' " state of mind before the accident. Clerk's Papers at 47. He said that he thought he was traveling at the speed limit at the time of the crash.

Hinds's criminal history consisted of three traffic citations, two of which involved excessive speeding. In May 1994, he was cited for traveling 33 mph above the posted speed limit; in February 1996, he was cited for driving 31 mph above the posted limit. He paid fines for each ticket.

Baggs's husband Kenneth testified that Hinds was a good friend of the family. He said that an exceptional sentence below the standard range was appropriate and that there was no need to send Hinds to prison where he would become a "hardened, heartless person." Report of Proceedings at 14.

Baggs's daughter Cynthia concurred. She said that a prison term was not necessary because Hinds would not re-offend. She also said that a police officer had told her that Hinds told him that her mother "put the keys in his hand, and he told me he didn't even want to drive that night at all, but she forced the keys in [his] hand. And knowing my mom, she had a temper. She was probably yelling at him. I don't know." Report of Proceedings at 16.

Baggs's sister Carol Andrews wrote that she was angry with Kenneth Baggs for failing to intervene in the "madness that was going on in my sister's life with all the drinking and teenagers etc." Clerk's Papers at 29. She also wrote: "Jason was 18 I believe, and drunk from liquor supplied by my sister. I believe she coaxed him into drinking and driving fast. She often told me about driving fast in her 'fast car.' " Clerk's Papers at 30. Andrews suggested that instead of a jail sentence, Hinds be ordered to spend time working with victims of drunk drivers and their families.

The Department of Corrections recommended an exceptional sentence downward of 90 days in jail, followed by a 36-month term of community supervision. According to the author of the pre-sentence report:

This is not a typical case of vehicular homicide. Although Hinds was acting in a reckless manner in causing the death of Patricia Baggs, she also acted recklessly and to a significant degree contributed to her own death. Ms. Baggs provided alcohol to several minors, including Hinds, in the hours before her death. She violated the law in doing so. Ms. Baggs directed Hinds to drive her vehicle. She chose not to use the vehicle's passenger side seatbelt, which resulted in her being ejected from the vehicle at the point of the collision.

Clerk's Papers at 49.

Hinds requested an exceptional sentence of 90 days of incarceration. He contended that the following mitigating factor applied: "To a significant degree, the victim was an initiator, willing participant, aggressor or provoker of the incident." RCW 9.94A.390(1)(a). Hinds argued that Baggs contributed to the offense because she provided him alcohol, permitted him to drive her car, failed to wear a seat belt and did not tell Hinds that Becky was in Baggs's home when they returned there after looking for her.

The State recommended a standard range sentence of 21 months. Pointing to Hinds's blood-alcohol level of .05 less than two hours after the accident, the State asserted that although Hinds's alcohol consumption may have contributed to his recklessness, it was not by itself the basis for his conviction. According to the State, the fact that Hinds received alcohol from Baggs did not establish that she was, to a significant degree, a willing participant in Hinds's reckless conduct.

The State also argued that Baggs's furnishing of her car to Hinds did not support the conclusion that she was a willing participant. The State contended that driving the car 65 mph above the speed limit--not simply driving the car--caused the accident. The State noted that Hinds's prior criminal history, which included two tickets for high-speed driving, suggested that Hinds "did not need much if any encouragement to drive in excess of the speed limit." Clerk's Papers at 61.

In its oral ruling, the court wondered why a 44-year-old woman would supply alcohol to an 18-year-old, or would entrust her vehicle to him after providing him with alcoholic beverage. The court placed great weight on Carol Andrews's statement as well as the recommendations of Kenneth and Cynthia Baggs. As to Ms. Andrews's statement, the court observed:

So I'm declaring an exceptional sentence on the express ground as a willing participant. I tend to think that based upon the letter that I received from one of Ms. Baggs' surviving sisters, 'That Jason was 18, I believe drunk from liquor supplied by my sister. I believe she coaxed him into drinking and driving fast. She often told me about driving fast in her fast car.' I don't know if she coaxed him into driving fast, but she might have.

Report of Proceedings at 26-27. The court imposed a 12-month county jail term and 12 months of community supervision.

The State's timely appeal followed.

DECISION

The State does not challenge the trial court's factual findings; rather, it contends that the findings do not support reliance on the "willing participant" mitigating factor. This contention requires us to determine whether the factual findings constitute a "substantial and compelling" reason for departing from the standard range as a matter of law. ¹ To meet this test, the facts must significantly distinguish the offense from other incidents of the same crime. ² The "willing participant" factor is applicable where both the defendant and the victim engaged in the conduct that caused the offense to occur. David Boerner, Sentencing in Washington, § 9.12, at 9-21 (1985). "The most frequent example of this is likely to be in cases of vehicular homicide when...