Opinion ID: 1946024
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: [¶ 32] Saucier also contends that the evidence was insufficient to convict him of manslaughter. He argues that insofar as the State was attempting to prove manslaughter, even if he was not driving at the time the truck plunged into the water, there was insufficient evidence that he caused Butterfield's death. [¶ 33] On the one hand, there was evidence from which the jury could have found, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Saucier was driving at the crucial point. There was also sufficient evidence that, if Butterfield was driving, Saucier spurred her to elude the police by driving at a high speed and to crash through a gate. This evidence was in Saucier's own words, from the statement he gave to the police after the incident. Saucier's description of the chase, in addition to the other evidence concerning it, was sufficient for a jury acting rationally to conclude that Butterfield's death would not have occurred but for Saucier's conduct in prodding her to drive at a high rate of speed at night on a rough dirt road and in telling her to crash through a gate. The evidence was also sufficient to allow the jury to find, if it found that Butterfield was driving, that Saucier's conduct in initially speeding away from the police, creating an atmosphere of anxiety and urgency, and then urging her to elude the police and drive through the gate was reckless or with criminal negligence. The entry is: Judgment affirmed.