Court Opinion

ID: 9632799
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:25:18.877436+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:00:04.159353
License: Public Domain

Jim Gunter, Justice. Appellant Charles Utley, an employee of Knight’s Disposal, was convicted by a jury of negligent homicide and sentenced to one year in the county jail and a fine of $1,000. He appeals, claiming that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. We affirm. On January 17, 2003, Mr. Utley was driving a loaded garbage truck in the southbound lane of Highway 61 near Blytheville. Brent Young was traveling in the northbound lane of Highway 61, and W.R. Perdue was in a separate car behind Mr. Young. Mr. Young testified that, as he crossed a bridge, he saw Mr. Utley’s truck coming toward him cross the center line. Mr. Young swerved to get out of the truck’s way, and the truck nicked Mr. Young’s car, shattering his window, and hit the bed of his truck. Mr. Utley’s truck then collided with Mr. Perdue’s pickup truck on the bridge. Mr. Perdue’s truck exploded, and he was killed. James Henderson was working at a cemetery near the bridge at the time of the accident. He testified that he had his back to the bridge when he heard something “go boom.” He turned around and saw a big blaze of fire on the bridge and Mr. Utley’s truck sliding past the bridge and into the ditch. He also testified that he did not hear anything before the “boom.” Officer James Creecy arrived at the scene at 1:15 p.m. He testified that he saw some skid marks, gouges, and yaws, or marks a vehicle makes when it is turning and bearing down instead of braking, between Mr. Utley’s truck and Mr. Young’s vehicle. All of these marks were in the northbound lane, indicating, first, that Mr. Utley was in the northbound lane and, second, that Mr. Utley did not swerve or apply his brakes before hitting Mr. Young. Officer Creecy testified that he saw no impact conditions on the southbound side of the highway. Officer Darrell McClung assisted at the scene of the accident. It was his responsibility to draw a diagram of the accident scene. He testified that the area of impact of the collision with Mr. Young’s vehicle was one hundred and eleven feet from the beginning of the bridge and that the impact of the collision with Mr. Perdue’s vehicle was on the bridge, seven feet left of the center line in the northbound lane. He also stated that he saw no skid marks, yaws, grooves, or any other marks to suggest that there had been any changes in either of the vehicles from the first area of impact to the second area of impact. Officer McClung stated that it appeared that Mr. Utley’s truck was going in a forward direction, not sideways, in the northbound lane for about one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty feet before it hit Mr. Perdue’s vehicle. He testified that there was no evidence of any attempt by Mr. Utley to stop. The jury found Mr. Utley guilty of negligent homicide and sentenced him to one year in the Mississippi County Detention Center and a fine of $1,000. Mr. Utley appealed, and the court of appeals reversed his judgment of conviction. See Utley v. State, 93 Ark. App. 381, 219 S.W.3d 709 (2005). We granted the State’s petition for review, pursuant to Ark. Sup. Ct. R. 2-4 (2005). When we grant review following a decision by the court of appeals, we review the case as though it originally had been filed in this court. Porter v. State, 356 Ark. 17, 145 S.W.3d 376 (2004). Mr. Utley’s sole point on appeal is that the circuit court erred in denying his motion for directed verdict because the evidence was insufficient to support the jury’s finding that he was guilty of negligent homicide. We have repeatedly held that, in reviewing a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, we view the evidence in a light most favorable to the State and consider only the evidence that supports the verdict. Cluck v. State, 365 Ark. 166, 226 S.W.3d 780 (2006). We affirm a conviction if substantial evidence exists to support it. Id. Substantial evidence is that which is of sufficient force and character that it will, with reasonable certainty, compel a conclusion one way or the other, without resorting to speculation or conjecture. Id. Mr. Utley was charged with negligent homicide. Arkansas Code Annotated § 5-10-105(b)(l) (Repl. 2006) provides that “[a] person commits negligent homicide if he or she negligently causes the death of another person.” The criminal code defines “negligently” as follows: (A) A person acts negligently with respect to attendant circumstances or a result of his or her conduct when the person should be aware of a substantial and justifiable risk that the attendant circumstances exist or the result will occur. (B) The risk must be of such a nature and degree that the actor’s failure to perceive the risk involves a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the actor’s situation considering the nature and purpose of the actor’s conduct and the circumstances known to the actor. Ark. Code Ann. § 5-2-202(4) (Repl. 2006). The issue before us is whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, the evidence was sufficient to support Mr. Utley’s conviction. In this case, the evidence demonstrated that Mr. Utley was driving a large commercial vehicle: a garbage truck. The only testimony from an eyewitness to the accident, Mr. Young, indicated that at the time Mr. Utley hit him, the garbage truck was over the center line in Mr. Young’s lane of traffic. Mr. Young testified that he swerved to avoid the garbage truck. There was no evidence that Mr. Utley braked or swerved to avoid Mr. Young. After this collision, the evidence indicates that Mr. Utley remained in the wrong lane of traffic for between one hundred and thirty and one hundred and fifty feet before hitting Mr. Perdue on the bridge. At the time of impact with Mr. Perdue’s truck, Mr. Utley was seven feet to the left of the center line. The lane was only eight feet wide. Once again, the investigating officers testified that there was no evidence that Mr. Utley braked, swerved, or did anything to avoid the second collision. Mr. Utley contends that the State did not prove that he acted negligently. He argues in his brief that there are other possible explanations why his truck crossed the center line, such as a blowout. He claims that: [w]here circumstantial evidence is relied upon in a criminal prosecution, proof of a few facts or a multitude of facts all consistent with the supposition of guilt is not sufficient to warrant a verdict of guilty. In order to convict a person upon circumstantial evidence, it is necessary not only that the circumstances all concur to show that the prisoner committed the crime and be consistent with the hypotheses of guilt, since that is to be compared with all the facts proved, but that they be inconsistent with any other rational conclusion and exclude every other reasonable theory or hypothesis except for that of guilt. Ayers v. State, 247 Ark. 174, 177-78, 444 S.W.2d 695, 696 (1969). In Ayers, both the appellant and the victim were intoxicated. We reversed the conviction of negligent homicide because there was no conclusive evidence regarding which direction each of the vehicles was traveling or which driver crossed the center line. We did state, however, that “[t]he criminal negligence in this case falls most heavily on the driver who crossed the center line of the highway[.]” Id. at 187, 444 S.W.2d at 700. In Mercer v. State, 256 Ark. 814, 510 S.W.2d 539 (1974), we reversed a conviction for involuntary manslaughter, requiring reckless, willful, or wanton disregard of the safety of others, where there was no evidence in the record to support the State’s contention that appellant crossed the center line. In Hunter v. State, 341 Ark. 665, 19 S.W.3d 607 (2000), we held that the evidence was sufficient to convict the appellant of negligent homicide where the fifteen-year-old appellant crossed a double-yellow line to pass a logging truck going uphill in the rain when the collision occurred.  Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State and considering only the evidence that supports the verdict, we hold that substantial evidence exists to support Utley’s conviction of negligent homicide. The circumstantial evidence in this case is consistent with the hypothesis of guilt, and no reasonable hypothesis to the contrary was either offered by Utley or supported by the evidence. A person driving a garbage truck around a curve and on a bridge should be aware that driving on the wrong side of the road presents a substantial and unjustifiable risk that he might hit a car traveling in the opposite direction and kill someone in that car. We hold it was not error for the jury to conclude that Mr. Utley’s failure to perceive that risk under the facts of this case constituted “a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in [Mr. Utley’s] situation[.]” Ark. Code Ann. § 5-2-202(4) (Rep. 2006). Affirmed. Hannah, C.J., dissents.