People v. Eagles6/30/1982
COURT OF APPEAL OF CALIFORNIA, THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT
No. 10641
1982.CA.40550 ; 133 Cal. App. 3d 330; 183 Cal. Rptr. 784
June 30, 1982
THE PEOPLE, PLAINTIFF AND RESPONDENT,
v.
JOHN RAYMOND EAGLES, JR., DEFENDANT AND APPELLANT
Superior Court of Sacramento County, No. 55881, Mamoru Sakuma, Judge.
Quin Denvir, State Public Defender, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, and Roy M. Dahlberg, Deputy State Public Defender, for Defendant and Appellant.
George Deukmejian, Attorney General, Robert H. Philibosian, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Arnold O. Overoye, Assistant Attorney General, Robert D. Marshall and Susan Rankin Bunting, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Opinion by Blease, Acting P. J., with Reynoso, J., and Young, J., concurring.
Blease
Defendant John Raymond Eagles, Jr., appeals from a judgment of conviction of three counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, in violation of Penal Code section 192, subdivision 3, and from the sentence of three consecutive terms of imprisonment. He was acquitted of three counts of second degree murder. We affirm the judgment.
Facts
Shortly before midnight on February 11, 1979, an automobile driven by defendant entered the intersection of Watt and El Camino Avenues in Sacramento at a high rate of speed and against a red light and struck another automobile, killing two of its occupants and one of the passengers in defendant's car and injuring nine other persons. There were
numerous witnesses to the collision and to defendant's driving conduct immediately prior thereto.
Frederick Roloff testified that as he completed a left turn from Auburn Boulevard onto Watt Avenue, defendant's car passed him at a speed of about 80 miles per hour. Recovering from his "initial shock," Roloff accelerated to about 60 miles per hour, but defendant continued to pull away at a speed Roloff estimated as 90 to 100 miles per hour, during which defendant "went through" a red light. From a parking lot off Watt Avenue James Byrd saw defendant's automobile "streak" by at a speed he estimated as "going faster than eighty," perhaps "over a hundred miles an hour."
As Kathleen Hicks approached the intersection of Watt and El Camino, traveling southbound on Watt, she observed defendant's car as it came up behind her "very rapidly," passed her "really flying . . . going a good 70 or 75" and proceeded into the intersection against a red light, without braking. Michael Bard was stopped in a northbound lane on Watt waiting for the light to change. He estimated defendant's car was traveling "[probably] between 60 and 70 miles an hour." James Giannelli, also stopped in a northbound lane on Watt, thought defendant's car was going "about 75." Edward Burger, similarly situated, estimated its speed at 60 to 65 miles per hour. The posted speed limit was 35 miles per hour.
A Highway Patrol Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation team reconstructed the accident on the basis of skid marks, scratches and gouges in the pavement and on the damage to the vehicles and where they came to rest. Dewey Brown, a California Department of Transportation traffic engineer assigned to the team, thereupon calculated the speeds of the vehicles upon impact, concluding that defendant's Camaro was tra
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