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Mclaughlin v. State9/27/1989
Just before 11:00 p.m., December 19, 1986, on Interstate Highway 25 near the McKinley Street exit, Casper, Wyoming, Robbyn Malone was killed when the speeding car from which she was ejected rolled over her head inflicting a massive crushing trauma. The car's driver was Robbyn's boyfriend, the father of her child, and appellant, Robert McLaughlin. Appellant was drunk.
McLaughlin was charged with violating W.S. 6-2-106(b)(ii), aggravated homicide by vehicle, which required the State to prove that he operated or drove a vehicle in a reckless manner and his conduct was the proximate cause of the death of another person. The jury that convicted McLaughlin did so on evidence that established the facts to be related below, after a statement of the issues on appeal, which issues we decide against appellant in affirming the conviction.
The trial centered around appellant's intoxication, speed (as indicated by eye-witness testimony and expert analysis of the physical facts), and cause of the roll-over — all going to the issue of whether appellant's conduct amounted to recklessness which caused the accident that indisputably took Robbyn Malone's life. Appellant says the conviction must be reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct in cross-examination and argument so egregious and which the trial court's failure to control was so erroneous that it cumulatively amounts to deprivation of appellant's right to fair trial; and, therefore, to plain error. The specifics of appellant's assertions and the issues raised, as well as this court's ruling on the latter, can be explained only in terms of the specific facts as developed from the trial evidence.
Appellant was home in Casper from Laramie where he had been attending a trade school. His friend, Dave Chilberg, who was visiting from California, was a passenger on the night of the accident and a witness at the trial. Chilberg had brought a large quantity of liquor as a gift to appellant but wanted to go out and hit the bars as a "warm up" before starting on the liquor. Appellant and Chilberg picked up Robbyn Malone in appellant's 1974 Datsun. The three of them, between 7:00 and 11:00 p.m., went to Bronco's where they each had a beer, a whiskey sour and a "blue blazer" (a drink made of one-half Southern Comfort and one-half Cream deMenthe), to Fran's where they each had a beer, and to Remington's where they again each consumed a beer, a whiskey sour and a blue blazer. They departed Remington's for the Avalon Club, and it was on the way there, on I-25 heading toward Douglas just beyond the McKinley Street off ramp, that the car skidded with locked wheels to the right side of the outside eastbound lane, veered left across both lanes, crashed into the "jersey barrier," skidded along the barrier, rolled once and landed on its wheels.
The section of interstate highway where the accident occurred was straight, flat, dry, well lit, and free of any obstruction or debris. The highway patrol responded and investigated. Officer Dye found appellant at the scene, apparently intoxicated. About 40 minutes after the accident a blood sample was drawn for a blood-alcohol test, which later produced a reading of .13 to .14. About 12:45 a.m., appellant was arrested and charged. At his trial, almost everything was contested.
There are several areas of evidence and conflict therein significant to the issues. They arise chiefly out of the respective parties' expert testimony interpreting the physical facts, the qualification, credentials and motives of the defense expert, the amount of alcohol consumed by appellant and the witness Chilberg, the relationship between blood-alcohol level and degree of alcohol-induced impairment,
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