Tegethoff v. State
| Decision Date | 12 March 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 1821,1821 |
| Citation | 220 So.2d 399 |
| Parties | Lawrence Thane TEGETHOFF, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Leon H. Handley and Bruce McEwan, of Gurney, Gurney & Handley, Orlando, for appellant.
Earl Faircloth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Charles W. Musgrove, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellee.
The appellant, Lawrence Thane Tegethoff, was tried in the Criminal Court of Record for Orange County, Florida, under an information which alleged that on 22 May 1966 he caused the death of one Raymond Terry Potter by culpable negligence in the operation of a motor vehicle. The defendant was tried by a jury which returned a verdict of guilty. The trial court entered an adjudication of guilt and placed the defendant on probation for a period of ten years. The defendant has appealed from the adjudication of guilt and the order of probation.
At the close of the state's case and again at the close of all the testimony the defendant made a motion for a directed verdict. Following the verdict and the adjudication of guilt a post-trial motion for new trial was made. Each of these motions was denied.
The assignments of error filed in this appeal charge that the trial court erred in failing to grant the said motions because the evidence was insufficient to show that the defendant caused the death of Raymond Terry Potter as charged by the information. The only question before this court, therefore, is whether or not the evidence was legally sufficient to show a causal connection between the culpable negligence of the defendant and the death of Raymond Terry Potter.
In examining a record to determine the sufficiency of evidence, an appellate court need only find substantial competent evidence to support the verdict. The verdict and judgment carry a presumption of correctness; hence, all inferences to be drawn from the evidence are to be drawn in favor of the verdict and judgment. Crum v. State, Fla.App.1965, 172 So.2d 24.
The following facts are stated in light of the foregoing principles. Between 3:30 and 4:00 a.m. on 22 May 1966 a deputy sheriff with the Orange County Sheriff's Department saw the defendant driving a 1966 Buick automobile in a southerly direction on Route 17--92 at its intersection with Horatio Avenue in Maitland, Florida. The vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed in the parking lane on the westernmost side of the highway. The deputy sheriff, upon seeing the defendant's vehicle, gave chase. As the vehicle proceeded south it ran into a median strip along the center of the highway and then proceeded through a red light at an intersection. In so doing, the defendant passed between two vehicles that were stopped waiting for the light to change. At this point the deputy sheriff turned on the blue warning light on the top of his automobile and periodically thereafter sounded the siren.
The defendant, instead of pulling to the side and stopping his vehicle in response to the signals from the sheriff's vehicle, continued to travel south at speeds up to 90 miles an hour and passed through three more red lights en route to the point of the accident. North of the point of accident the road curved. The defendant slowed to approximately 75 miles an hour at the curve and veered from the west side of the road to the east side of the road. On coming out of the curve, the defendant accelerated his automobile and traveled to the point of impact with the deceased's vehicle. This was within the city limits of Orlando on the west side of Route 17--92 at a point adjacent to a driveway leading to a motel situated west of the road. From photographs introduced in evidence and the testimony of the deputy sheriff and other witnesses who came upon the scene shortly after the accident, it appears that the defendant's vehicle ran into approximately the mid-section of the right side of deceased's vehicle, a white Rambler station wagon. At the time of impact the front of the wagon was facing west.
The distance from the point where the deputy sheriff first saw the defendant to the point where the accident occurred was approximately four miles. The speed limit over this stretch of road varied from 45 miles per hour in Maitland to 35 miles an hour at the place where the collision occurred.
In the vicinity of the accident, Route 17--92 runs approximately north and south and has several southbound lanes as well as several northbound lanes. There was no median strip dividing the highway, but there were double yellow lines along the center of the road. From Photographs in evidence there appears to be no structures along the center line of the road to block the view of traffic. The road was well lighted in the vicinity of the accident and straight and level. It also appears from the photographs that the driveway to the motel was free of obstruction to view for several feet west of the highway.
At the location of the accident, there was also at least one motel on the east side of the road as well as other commercial establishments. The deputy sheriff who was following the defendant testified that there was no other traffic visible to him in the area.
Tire and scuff marks on the road indicated that the two vehicles after impact traveled in a very slight arc moving up over the curb along the west side of the road and back into the westernmost southbound lane finally coming to rest about 220 feet south of the point of impact. In the process, the two vehicles demolished a telephone booth and a stop sign...
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Baker v. State
...negligence under section 782.07, Florida Statutes (1977). Thompson v. State, 108 Fla. 370, 146 So. 201 (1933); Tegethoff v. State, 220 So.2d 399 (Fla. 4th DCA 1969); Karl v. State, 144 So.2d 869 (Fla. 3d DCA 1962). He concludes, therefore, that to permit a manslaughter conviction under sect......
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...v. State, Fla.1957, 92 So.2d 651; Fort v. State, Fla.1956, 91 So.2d 637; Hunt v. State, Fla.1956, 87 So.2d 584; Tegethoff v. State, Fla.App.4th 1969, 220 So.2d 399; McDougal v. State, Fla.App.2d 1966, 181 So.2d 539; Hamilton v. State, Fla.App.2d 1963, 152 So.2d 793; Flint v. State, Fla.App.......
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