Thomas v. State4/18/1977
Lewis Wilson Thomas, appellant herein, was convicted in the District Court of Natrona County on three counts of manslaughter arising from an automobile accident which occurred on July 13, 1974, resulting in the deaths of Lloyd Earl Eldridge III, Pamela Raye Byers, and Laurie Kay Freel. This accident happened about two and one-half miles south of Casper on the Casper Mountain highway. At the time of the accident Thomas was driving the car of Connie Osborn and had Debra Ambler, Laurie Freel, and Larry Ortega as passengers. At the point of the accident there was a slight curve to the left and he lost control of the car, which skidded into the left lane where it hit a motorcycle being driven by Eldridge with Pamela Byers as a passenger. Both occupants of the motorcycle were killed, and Laurie Freel, a passenger in the car driven by appellant, died as a result of the accident. Pertinent material facts will be set out in more detail when they become relevant and necessary to the disposal of appellant's various contentions.
Appellant raises six asserted errors, which will appear in this opinion in the order in which such contentions are discussed. The first contention is as follows:
"SECTION 6-58, supra [W.S. 1957], ENACTED IN 1890, WAS REPEALED BY IMPLICATION WITH ENACTMENT OF § 31-232(a) [W.S. 1957, C. 1967], ENACTED IN 1939, INSOFAR AS § 6-58, supra, FORMERLY RELATED TO VEHICULAR HOMICIDES UNDER CIRCUMSTANCES INVOLVING `CULPABLE NEGLECT OR CRIMINAL CARELESSNESS'."
The relationship and application of our involuntary manslaughter statute and the so-called negligent homicide law applying to deaths occurring as the result of the operation of automobiles have been obscure and troublesome areas for lawyers and the courts for many years.
Under a different statutory scheme, so far as deaths occasioned by the operation of motor vehicles are concerned, this court called attention to the then incongruity in this area in State v. McComb, 33 Wyo. 346, 239 P. 526, 41 A.L.R. 717; and the court in that case, not deeming it properly presented, did not pass upon the question of whether the prosecution should have been under the statute which applied solely to deaths occasioned from the operation of automobiles, but "deemed it advisable to call attention to the seeming incongruities under our law," 239 P. at 530. In 1947, and under a statutory scheme identical to the one presently in effect, this question arose again in State v. Cantrell, 64 Wyo. 132, 186 P.2d 539, which involved an attack upon a portion of § 6-58, which will be later discussed. The majority opinion demonstrates the questions and difficulties which arise therefrom; and Justice Blume, with his usual acuity and legal foresight, in a concurrence expressed his concern with the difficulties which were experienced in determining under which statute a defendant should be charged, and thought this of enough importance to suggest careful legislative consideration of these statutes to establish some "rule of guidance for the courts," 186 P.2d at 548. Nothing was done to implement this suggestion. Again, in 1956, in State v. Wilson, 76 Wyo. 297, 301 P.2d 1056, 1065, this court noted the confusion arising within this statutory arrangement. We can only note that we still have the statutory scheme to which these criticisms were directed and which has been in no manner changed. The statutes from which this question arises are as follows:
"Whoever unlawfully kills any human being without malice, expressed or implied, either voluntarily, upon a sudden heat of passion, or involuntarily, but in the commission of some unlawful act, or by any culpable neglect or criminal carelessness, is guilty of manslaughter,
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wyoming DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|