People v. Watson11/30/1981
SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA
Crim. No. 21674
1981.CA.40099 ; 30 Cal. 3d 290; 179 Cal. Rptr. 43; 637 P.2d 279
November 30, 1981
THE PEOPLE, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLANT,
v.
ROBERT LEE WATSON, DEFENDANT AND RESPONDENT
Superior Court of Shasta County, No. 62954, William H. Phelps, Judge.
George Deukmejian, Attorney General, Robert H. Philibosian, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Arnold O. Overoye, Assistant Attorney General, James T. McNally, Lisa Lewis Dubois, Eddie T. Keller and Thomas R. Yanger, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Appellant.
Russell J. Swartz, Public Defender, Quin Denvir, State Public Defender, and Charles M. Bonneau, Deputy State Public Defender, for Defendant and Respondent.
Opinion by Richardson, J., with Tobriner, Mosk and Newman, JJ., and Lachs, J., concurring. Separate dissenting opinions by Bird, C. J., and Ibanez, J.
Richardson
Defendant was charged with both second degree murder (see Pen. Code, §§ 187-189; all further statutory references are to this code) and vehicular manslaughter (§ 192, subd. 3(a)). In this pretrial proceeding, he contends that the facts underlying the alleged offense disclose, at most, gross negligence punishable under the manslaughter statute. We have concluded, however, that the facts also support a finding of implied malice (§ 188) justifying the murder charge as well.
The circumstances of the offense, as elicited at the preliminary examination, are as follows: In the late night and early morning hours of January 2 and 3, 1979, defendant Robert Watson consumed large quantities of beer in a Redding bar. Approximately an hour and a half after leaving the bar, defendant drove through a red light on a Redding street and avoided a collision with another car only by skidding to a halt in the middle of the intersection. After this near collision, defendant drove away at high speed, approached another intersection and, although he again applied his brakes, struck a Toyota sedan. Three passengers in the Toyota were ejected from the vehicle and the driver and her six-year-old daughter were killed. Defendant left 112 feet of skid marks prior to impact, and another 180 feet of skid marks to the vehicle's point of rest.
The applicable speed limit at the accident scene was 35 miles per hour. Expert testimony based on the skid marks and other physical evidence
estimated defendant's speed immediately prior to applying his brakes at 84 miles per hour. At point of impact, the experts concluded that defendant's speed was approximately 70 miles per hour. Eyewitness Henke testified that defendant's car passed him "real fast" (estimated by Henke at 50 to 60 miles per hour) shortly before the collision. According to Henke, defendant swerved from the slow lane into the fast lane, suddenly braked and skidded into the intersection, and thereupon struck the other vehicle. Henke believed that the traffic light was green when defendant entered the intersection.
Defendant's blood alcohol content one-half hour after the collision was .23 percent, more than twice the percentage necessary to support a finding that he was legally intoxicated.
The complaint herein charged defendant with two counts each of second degree murder and vehicular manslaughter. At the preliminary examination, the magistrate found probable cause to charge defendant with vehicu
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