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Jeffries v. State5/14/2004
st cases dealing with vehicular homicide charged as second-degree murder, the defendant's conduct has fit the definition suggested by Jeffries. That is, the defendants engaged in egregiously dangerous driving--much more dangerous than simply taking control of a vehicle while intoxicated and then driving carelessly.
For instance, in Foxglove v. State, 929 P.2d 669 (Alaska App.1997), the defendant intentionally drove his snow machine at a speed of 70 miles per hour through a crowd of people gathered around a bonfire. [FN17] In Ratliff v. State, 798 P.2d 1288(Alaska App.1990), the defendant weaved across the road, forcing one oncoming car completely off the road and into a snowbank, and forcing another car to veer almost off the road in order to avoid a head-on collision. Ratliff then entered the wrong side of a divided highway, passing two pairs of large signs that warned him he was going the wrong way. Driving in excess of the speed limit, and disregarding the efforts of motorists who flashed their lights to get his attention, Ratliff drove for two miles before colliding head-on with another car. [FN18] In Stiegele v. State, 714 P.2d 356 (Alaska App.1986), the defendant spun his truck around 360 degrees, then headed up a road on the left side. Shortly afterwards, the police observed the defendant's truck traveling down the wrong side of the road at approximately 85 miles per hour, then leave the road and crash into the woods. Witnesses testified that, before the crash, the passengers in the truck were screaming for Stiegele to stop. [FN19] And in Pears v. State, 672 P.2d 903 (Alaska App.1983), the defendant repeatedly exceeded the speed limit and ran through stop signs and red lights, disregarding the warnings of his passenger. He then dropped off his passenger and continued driving. Just before the fatal collision, Pears saw that the cars in front of him were stopping for a red light, so he drove around those cars in the right-turn lane, then entered the intersection without slowing down. Pears collided with one of the cars entering the intersection on the green light; he knocked this other car 146 feet. [FN20]
FN17. Foxglove, 929 P.2d at 670.
FN18. Ratliff, 798 P.2d at 1289-90.
FN19. Stiegele, 714 P.2d at 358-59.
FN20. Pears, 672 P.2d at 909.
On the other hand, some of our prior cases involving intoxicated drivers convicted of second-degree murder have arisen from episodes in which the physical actions of the intoxicated drivers were fairly typical of what one might expect from an intoxicated person. In both Richardson v. State, 47 P.3d 660, 661 (Alaska App.2002), and Puzewicz v. State, 856 P.2d 1178, 1179 (Alaska App.1993), the defendants crossed the center line and collided with an oncoming car.
*191 In particular, the facts of Puzewicz are similar in most respects to the facts of Jeffries's case. Puzewicz spent most of the day drinking beer, and then he went driving in the evening and killed two people. [FN21] Although Puzewicz claimed to have drunk only four or five beers in the hours preceding the collision, his blood alcohol level was .219 percent. [FN22]
FN21. Puzewicz, 856 P.2d at 1179.
FN22. Id.
Puzewicz had three prior convictions for driving while intoxicated, and he was on probation from his third DWI conviction when he committed the murders. [FN23] Puzewicz was not supposed to be driving at all--because, as a result of his third DWI conviction, Puzewicz's driver's license had been revoked for ten years. [FN24] Moreover, Puzewicz had failed to undertake the residential treatment program that was required as part of his sentence for that prior conviction, and the district court had issued an unserved warrant for his arrest. [FN25]
FN23. Id. at 1180.
FN24. Id
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