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State v. King3/28/2003
Judgment Appealed From Is: Affirmed
. The defendant-appellant, Alphonso King, appeals from the judgment of the trial court finding him guilty and sentencing him to a combined seven-year prison term on one count of aggravated vehicular homicide and one count of vehicular homicide, violations of R.C. 2903.06(A)(1) and R.C. 2903.06(A)(3), respectively. The convictions were the product of a jury trial that also resulted in King being found not guilty of a second count of aggravated vehicular homicide. In his five assignments of error, he challenges (1) the weight and sufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions; (2) the admission into evidence of test results from blood samples taken from him after the automobile accident that gave rise to the charges; and (3) the permitting of testimony from the victim's wife concerning the emotional and financial impact of the loss of her husband. For the following reasons, we find no merit in any of the assignments of error and thus affirm.
FACTS
. The accident occurred on Columbia Parkway on a wet November 2000 morning. King and his friend, Leroy Goodrum, had been at a nightclub called Annie's and were traveling westbound in the outermost lane at approximately 3:00 a.m. The speed limit was forty-five miles per hour. According to the state's experts, King was driving his Q-45 Infiniti automobile at seventy-five miles per hour when he lost control of his vehicle. The Infiniti crossed the center lane, struck the guardrail twice, and then crashed into a Nissan Sentra that was traveling in the eastbound lane at approximately thirty-eight miles per hour. The driver of the Sentra, Sammy Wolfe, died from his injuries later that night at University Hospital. King, who suffered a fractured skull and broken bones in his jaw, hip, and ribs, was first treated at University Hospital before being transferred to Drake Hospital for a prolonged period of rehabilitation.
. Cincinnati Police Officer Charles Beebe, an accident investigator, arrived at the scene of the accident at approximately 4:05 a.m. Beebe testified (at the trial, but not at the suppression hearing ) that he could smell the odor of alcohol on King before he was transported away by ambulance. Beebe communicated this information to Officer Paul Grein, who attempted to have the paramedics on the scene draw blood from King. The paramedics refused, however, because of King's critical status. Beebe therefore dispatched Police Specialist Greg Kaufman to University Hospital to obtain a sample of King's blood.
. Kaufman arrived at the hospital at approximately 4:30 a.m. and found King lying on a gurney, attended by medical personnel. Kaufman, who did not have a warrant, waited and observed. Kaufman testified that King was wearing a neck brace, with tubes extruding from either his mouth or nose, but that he was able, when asked by the nurse, to write down his telephone number. It was Kaufman's impression that King, despite his physical condition, was alert and his mental faculties were intact. The nurse who was attending to King, Jill Bowman, testified that King had received narcotic pain medication, Fentanyl, but that she still considered him fully oriented to time and place. According to Bowman, before taking King's blood, she performed a "Glas ow Coma Test" and scored him at the highest number of the scale, meaning that she believed that King fully understood what was being said to him.
. Kaufman testified at the suppression hearing that when he arrived at the hospital, his purpose was not to place King under arrest. However, after waiting for the physicians to leave, Kaufman read to King first his Miranda rights and then recited to him la
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