State v. Williams
| Decision Date | 30 October 2018 |
| Docket Number | No. A-17-877.,A-17-877. |
| Citation | 26 Neb.App. 459,920 N.W.2d 868 |
| Parties | STATE of Nebraska, Appellee, v. Andrew D. WILLIAMS, Appellant. |
| Court | Nebraska Court of Appeals |
Bell Island, of Island Law Office, P.C., L.L.O., Gerling, for appellant.
Douglas J. Peterson, Attorney General, and Austin N. Relph, Lincoln, for appellee.
Andrew D. Williams appeals from his convictions after a jury trial in the district court for Douglas County of two counts of driving under the influence causing serious bodily injury. On appeal, he argues the court erred in rulings regarding evidentiary issues, excusing a prospective juror for cause, and denying pretrial motions to suppress. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.
On the evening of February 26, 2016, Williams' pickup truck collided with a car near the intersection of 52d and Parker Streets in Omaha, Nebraska. Kyle Phillips, Erin Sorenson, and Nathaniel Wissink were in the car when it was hit.
Phillips, who testified that he drives through the area on a near-daily basis, described 52d and Parker Streets as a T-intersection in which a driver on Parker Street faces uphill. From this perspective, a driver has a clear line of sight to the right, or north, but when looking to the left, or south, on 52d Street, can see for only a block or block and a half as a hill crests when 52d Street intersects near Decatur Street. Accordingly, Phillips testified that oncoming cars traveling on 52d Street from the south would not be visible from the intersection in question until the hill’s crest.
On February 26, 2016, Phillips was accompanied by Wissink in the front passenger seat and Sorenson in the rear passenger seat as he drove westbound on Parker Street up the hill. Phillips testified that it was dark at about 6:45 or 7 p.m. when he stopped at the stop sign at the intersection of 52d and Parker Streets. After seeing no cars approaching from the left or the right, he pulled into the intersection and began to turn left when his car was "struck just ... so fast that there was no time to comprehend anything" from the left while approximately halfway in the intersection.
During trial, the State elicited testimony from a number of neighbors who heard the accident and quickly arrived at the scene. Andrew Hale was sitting in his home on 52d Street and heard a vehicle approaching from the south at "what [he] thought would be a high rate of speed." The vehicle accelerated without stopping, sounding as if "somebody had pushed on the gas pedal." Hale testified that the vehicle continued accelerating until he heard a crash a few seconds after it passed his house. At no point did Hale hear the vehicle brake. When Hale got outside and saw there had been a crash, he called the 911 emergency dispatch service and spoke to the dispatcher.
Brett Bailes, who lived at the corner of 52d and Parker Streets, testified that he felt an explosion that shook his front door and saw a fireball go up into the trees. He ran outside and up to the car and immediately encountered Sorenson, who had come out of the car and was engulfed in flames. Bailes took off his hooded sweatshirt, put it over her, and tackled her to the ground in order to smother out the flames with his body.
Bailes testified that once the flames engulfing Sorenson were extinguished, he noticed that Sorenson’s face had significant burns and that much of her hair was gone. He further described that the jacket and jeans she was wearing appeared to be "melted into her skin": "You couldn't tell where skin and where clothing stopped and started." Bailes next noticed that Phillips, who was limply hanging out the car and beginning to regain consciousness, was being helped out of the car by another neighbor who lived on Parker Street and went outside after hearing "a very large, loud sound, kind of indescribable, extremely-violent-and-loud-explosion kind of a sound" and seeing a vehicle in flames.
Sorenson indicated there had been three people in the car, so Bailes and two neighbors ran back to the car that was completely engulfed in flames and found Wissink unconscious in the front passenger seat. Bailes testified that the car was split in half and appeared to be melting by that point; the front passenger door was "creased in" and would not open.
The three neighbors attempted to extricate Wissink from the car but struggled because his leg was pinned by the door and dashboard. Bailes said the back of Wissink’s jeans were on fire and were "melting to him" by that point. Eventually, Bailes leaned in through the driver’s window and freed Wissink’s leg, enabling his two neighbors to pull Wissink out the front passenger window. Wissink remained unconscious when they laid him in the yard beside Sorenson and Phillips. Paramedic firefighters arrived shortly thereafter.
Bailes and one of the neighbors ran toward the pickup truck, which was near 52d and Blondo Streets, to see if anyone needed help. No one was in the pickup truck, however, and Bailes said he saw no one around who may have been the driver. Bailes testified that he observed "a plethora of beer cans of Bud Light cans and Budweiser cans all along the street." He never saw anyone associated with the pickup truck.
On cross-examination, Bailes said that "you can see [south] one and a half or two blocks" from the intersection of 52d and Parker Streets. He also estimated that there were probably 12 to 15 beer cans in the street.
Jason Orduna, a paramedic firefighter, testified that he rode in the first vehicle out of the station, an ambulance, and that he could see the fiery car from approximately six blocks away. Various bystanders and neighbors had assembled by the time he arrived at the scene and directed him to the victims in the nearby yard. After speaking with Sorenson and briefly examining her wounds and also conversing with Gregory Hladik, another paramedic firefighter, Orduna determined that Sorenson was the most critically wounded victim. Hladik also testified that Sorenson was more severely injured than Phillips. As Orduna treated Sorenson, Hladik treated Phillips. Together, they transported Sorenson and Phillips via ambulance to a medical center, arriving there at 7:41 p.m. Upon arrival at the medical center, Orduna and Hladik transferred care to the medical center personnel.
Omaha Police Department officers, Mark Blice and Grant Gentile, were dispatched to the scene as well. They first observed a pickup truck on its side about a block away from a car that was engulfed in flames and virtually split in half. They also observed several unopened beer cans and ice in the road along with coolers in the back of the pickup truck. After ensuring no occupants remained in either vehicle, Blice and Gentile began separately speaking with potential witnesses who had gathered near the scene.
Witnesses told Blice that they observed the pickup truck driver exit his vehicle and walk away. They described the pickup truck driver as a white man who had short hair and wore blue jeans. As Blice continued speaking with witnesses, they identified a man walking around behind him as the pickup truck driver. That man was thereafter identified as Williams.
Blice made contact with Williams and observed that he appeared disoriented, smelled of alcohol, and exhibited slurred speech and watery eyes. When Blice asked Williams if he was the pickup truck driver, Williams confirmed that he was. Williams also matched the physical description given by witnesses. Blice then handcuffed Williams and placed him in the back seat of his police cruiser.
Without first administering a Miranda warning, Blice proceeded to briefly question Williams. In particular, Blice asked Williams what had happened, where he was going, and what he was doing when the accident occurred. Williams answered that he was traveling northbound on 52d Street when someone pulled out in front of him. Williams told Blice that he was unable to stop before hitting the car, and he acknowledged that he was traveling too fast.
Contemporaneous with Blice’s speaking to witnesses and locating Williams, Gentile spoke with the victims who were being treated in a nearby yard prior to transport. Later medical examinations and treatment showed that Sorenson suffered second degree burns to her face and hands, a lung contusion, a small collapse of her lung, multiple broken ribs, and a ruptured spleen. Phillips sustained a cervical spine fracture near his lower neck or upper back. Meanwhile, Wissink suffered a concussion and a "bone dent" to his right femur.
After speaking with the three victims, Gentile approached Williams, who was at that time handcuffed and seated in the back of the police cruiser. Gentile asked Williams whether he was injured or needed medical attention, which Williams declined. During their conversation, Gentile noticed the strong odor of alcoholic beverage on Williams' person and further observed that his speech was thick and slurred.
Blice and Gentile transported Williams to the police station. While transporting Williams, Blice asked him for the information of an emergency contact person as was Blice’s routine procedure while transporting someone. Williams provided the name and telephone number of his wife. Records show that Williams entered the police station at approximately 8:15 p.m. on February 26, 2016. Upon arrival, Blice and Gentile took Williams into a room designated for breath testing and read him a "Post Arrest Chemical Test Advisement," which advised Williams he had been arrested for driving under the influence and requested that he submit to a breath test. Blice also began observing Williams as part of the test and readied paperwork, including a driving under the influence supplementary report and field notes, which includes a Miranda rights advisory. Williams agreed to answer questions after being read the advisory.
Blice asked Williams whether he was...
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