 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
State v. Christian3/9/2004
e accident at issue in the present case, and that he had been wearing his seat belt.
When the ambulance arrived at Hartford Hospital, the defendant was examined by a trauma team headed by Orlando C. Kirton, a general surgeon, who determined that the defendant had sustained several injuries, including a broken left clavicle, or collarbone, with accompanying abrasions and bruising to the upper left side of his chest, a broken bone in his right hand, two broken toes in his right foot and a bruise on his right hip. The defendant's blood was drawn, revealing that he had a blood alcohol level of 0.20, twice the legal limit. See footnote 3 of this opinion. The defendant told Robert Beginsky, a junior resident physician and part of the trauma team on duty at Hartford Hospital when the defendant was admitted, that he did not remember the accident or whether he had been the driver or the passenger. Beginsky noted that the defendant initially had stated that he thought he had been the passenger.
The victim was pronounced dead at Hartford Hospital at 1:42 a.m. on March 18, 2000. The cause of death was "multiple blunt traumatic injuries," including "multiple rib and sternal fractures ...." The defendant subsequently was charged by substitute information with manslaughter in the second degree with a motor vehicle in violation of § 53a-56b (a), operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor in violation of § 14-227a (a) (2) (A), and reckless driving in violation of § 14-222 (a). See footnotes 2 through 4 of this opinion.
At trial, the defendant did not contest that he was intoxicated on the evening of March 17, 2000. Rather, the defendant argued that the victim had been driving her car at the time of the accident and that he had been in the passenger seat. The state presented the testimony of Vorih, Ruggerio and Ford, all of whom testified that the defendant repeatedly had told them that he had been driving at the time of the accident. The state also presented the testimony of the defendant's estranged wife, Joan Christian, who testified, over the defendant's objection, that the defendant had told her that he had been driving at the time of the accident.
In addition, the state presented evidence concerning the circumstances of the accident. Specifically, Bourque testified that, on the basis of the "crush" damage to the vehicle and the location of paint chips from the victim's vehicle on the stone trestle wall of the railroad overpass, he determined that the vehicle had been moving at a speed of approximately fifty miles per hour when it hit the wall at a 73 degree angle, and that it then had rotated approximately 88 degrees before coming to rest at the bottom of the embankment. After comparing the circumstances of the accident to video recordings of professional crash tests, which were shown to the jury, Bourque characterized the collision as a frontal impact. On the basis of the crash test video recordings, the frontal impact collision, the weight of the victim, the victim's position in the passenger seat and Wilson's statement to the police that she had witnessed a male seated in the driver's seat, Bourque testified with a reasonable degree of certainty that the defendant had been driving at the time of the accident.
Bourque also testified, with the aid of a videotaped reenactment that was shown to the jury, that due to the intense damage to the vehicle, a woman of the victim's height and weight could not have moved from the driver's seat into the passenger's seat after the vehicle had come to rest. Finally, Bourque testified that the driver's side seat belt, which was shown to the jury, had suffered structural damage and was found in a r
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Connecticut DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|