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Kidd v. Com.8/20/2004
Nicholas Kidd (the appellant) has sought discretionary review of an opinion of the Barren Circuit Court, which reversed a judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) entered by the Barren District Court.
Kidd was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of marijuana (DUI), a violation of KRS [FN1] 189A.010(1)(c). After a jury found him guilty of the charge, Kidd persuaded the district court that the verdict was not supported by sufficient evidence. The district court set aside the verdict and entered a judgment of acquittal. The Commonwealth appealed, and the Barren Circuit Court reversed the JNOV and remanded the matter to the district court with directions that it reinstate the jury's verdict.
FN1. Kentucky Revised Statutes.
The sole issue for our review is whether the circuit court erred as a matter of law in concluding that the Commonwealth was not required to prove that Kidd was driving erratically in order to satisfy the elements of KRS 189A.010(1)(c). After a review of the DUI statute and the applicable legal precedents, we find no error in the court's decision as to the Commonwealth's burden-of-proof. The court held that when the evidence was construed favorably as to the verdict, a rational trier of fact could have found proof of Kidd's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. We agree.
The following facts, which we have recited verbatim from the opinion and judgment of the district court, are not in dispute:
On May 15, 2002, in the early hours of the morning, an officer with the Glasgow Police Department observed [Kidd] operating a motor vehicle on a public roadway in Glasgow, Kentucky, with inoperable tail lamps. This officer stopped [Kidd], and, while talking to [Kidd], detected an odor of marijuana coming from the person of [Kidd].
[Kidd] was administered three field sobriety tests (one-leg stand, walk and turn[,] and HGN), and the officer scored all three tests as failed. [Kidd] was arrested and provided the officer with the requested urine sample.
The arresting officer testified, at the trial, that he observed nothing wrong with [Kidd's] driving, and that he stopped [Kidd] only because the tail lamps on his vehicle were not operating. However, the officer did testify that, after [Kidd] had been stopped, he observed that [Kidd's] eyes would not react to light and were blood-shot and glassy; and, [Kidd] had slow and slurred speech.
At the trial, the laboratory expert testified that the drug content of the urine sample received by the Kentucky State Police laboratory contained cannabinoid metabolites. However, the expert also testified that the laboratory test would not reveal how long prior to the taking of the urine sample [Kidd] had used marijuana; and, the fact that the test indicated cannabinoid metabolites meant that the drug had passed through [Kidd's] body. (Later in the trial, [Kidd] admitted that he had smoked marijuana in the morning of the previous day.)
*402 The trial (district) court initially denied Kidd's motion for a directed verdict, but it indicated that it would reconsider the motion at a later time. The case was submitted to the jury, which convicted Kidd of DUI and sentenced him to serve forty-eight hours in jail and to pay a fine of $500.
At the sentencing hearing that followed, the court set aside the jury's verdict, granted a judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV), and entered a judgment of acquittal, concluding that the proof required for a DUI arising from drug use differed from that relevant to an alcohol-based DUI. The district court stated that there was no evidence that Kidd's driving "was anything but exemplary" and no evidence that he "was under the influence of anything." It also concluded, sua sponte, that it had erred in permitting the arresting office
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