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People v. McAfee3/25/2004
JUDGMENT AND SENTENCES AFFIRMED
Defendant, Anthony E. McAfee, appeals from the judgment of conviction and sentences entered on a jury verdict finding him guilty of vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, and two counts of leaving the scene of an accident. We affirm.
Early one morning in 1999, defendant drove a car with two passengers head on into a telephone pole. The passenger in the front seat suffered two broken legs and head and internal injuries. The passenger in the back seat suffered massive injuries and died shortly after the accident.
Witnesses to the accident saw defendant exit the car, look at the damage, and tell one of the injured passengers to "get up" because they had to "get out of here." Defendant told one bystander that "the driver ran." However, when he was confronted as the driver, defendant left the scene and got into a cab. When asked by the cab driver where he was going, he told the driver to "just go." Police caught up with the cab shortly thereafter.
Investigators found no indication that mechanical failure or external factors outside the car caused the crash. When defendant was taken to the police station, he was uncooperative and excited, yelled profanities, and refused to comply with verbal commands during a sobriety screening. Defendant's blood test for drugs revealed a cocaine metabolite known as benzoylecgonine, indicating that he had ingested cocaine within eighteen to twenty-four hours prior to the accident.
Defendant was convicted as charged and sentenced to forty-seven years in the Department of Corrections.
I. Sufficiency of Evidence
Both the vehicular homicide and vehicular assault charges required the People to show that defendant was driving under the influence of alcohol or one or more drugs at the time of the accident. Sections 18- 3-106(1)(b), 18-3-205(1)(b), C.R.S. 2003. Defendant argues that these convictions should be vacated because there was insufficient evidence to support this element. Defendant bases his argument on the testimony of the People's medical expert that the presence of cocaine metabolites in defendant's blood did not indicate whether his ability to drive had been impaired by the drug. We are not persuaded.
When the sufficiency of the evidence is challenged on appeal, a reviewing court must determine whether the evidence, when viewed as a whole and in the light most favorable to the prosecution, is sufficient to support a conclusion by a reasonable person that the defendant is guilty of the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt. Kogan v. People, 756 P.2d 945 (Colo. 1988).
Here, the evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, established that defendant was driving under the influence of cocaine. Evidence showed that he had admitted to fellow inmates that (1) he had been buying and smoking crack cocaine for several days prior to the accident, (2) he had partied throughout the night before the accident, and (3) at the time of the accident he was driving the car because he knew where to get more crack cocaine. The People offered expert testimony that defendant had ingested cocaine within eighteen to twenty-four hours before the accident and that the period after ingesting cocaine can be followed by fatigue, loss of motor skills, inattentiveness, paranoia, and hallucinations. After the accident, defendant was highly agitated and exhibited other behaviors that led police and other witnesses to believe he was under the influence of either drugs or alcohol.
Accordingly, we conclude sufficient evidence was presented at trial to support defendant's conviction of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault
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