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Winston v. State10/29/2004
A jury found Hazel Winston guilty of reckless driving and failure to exercise due care after she struck two pedestrians with her truck. On appeal, she argues that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdicts and that the trial court erred by allowing her to represent herself, by making various adverse evidentiary rulings, and by failing to charge the jury on her sole defense. Because these arguments lack merit, we affirm.
Viewed favorably to the state, the record shows that between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. on a rainy night in November 2000, Allan Brown and Sherry Burton left their hotel on Old National Parkway in Fulton County to walk to a restaurant across the street. They crossed the four-lane street at a point that was not marked as a pedestrian crossing. Before crossing, Brown looked both ways and saw no cars approaching. Brown and Burton safely traversed three of the four lanes, but Winston's truck struck them as they were crossing the fourth lane. Brown's body was thrown 33 feet; Burton's body was thrown 60 feet; and both were injured. No skid marks were found at the scene.
Brown testified that Winston's truck did not have its headlights on, that he did not see it until immediately before it hit him, and that he had no time to avoid the collision. He estimated that the truck was traveling between 30 and 40 mph, and he stated that Winston did not blow the horn.
Burton had no memory of the collision. She testified, however, that Winston visited the hospital the next day and said, " hen I looked up, it was too late."
Officer Craig Harper of the College Park Police Department responded to the incident. He testified that Winston told him that she was running late for work, that she had looked down for something on the floorboard, and that when she looked up and saw Brown and Burton, it was too late to stop. In his accident report, Harper wrote that Winston had said that she was "in a hurry," "possibly destracted and not completely paying attention." He took her to a hospital for a blood test, which showed no alcohol in her system. Based on the distances that the victims' bodies traveled after the collision, Harper cited Winston for driving too fast for conditions. According to Harper, the speed limit on Old National Parkway was 25 mph.
Winston was charged by accusation with reckless driving, failure to exercise due care, and driving too fast for conditions. She represented herself at trial and called no witnesses to testify on her behalf. The jury found her guilty of the first two charges, but not guilty of the third.
1. Winston contends that the evidence was insufficient to support her convictions. We disagree.
(a) Reckless driving occurs when a person drives a vehicle "in reckless disregard for the safety of persons or property." Because "the offense of reckless driving may be committed in a variety of ways . . ., the State needed only to present evidence showing that [Winston] drove car in a manner exhibiting reckless disregard for the safety of persons or property." The state met this burden by presenting evidence that Winston was driving above the speed limit without headlights on a rainy night, was looking down instead of watching the road ahead, and neither sounded her horn nor applied her brakes when she saw Brown and Burton just before she hit them. This evidence was sufficient to support her reckless driving conviction.
Winston cites Klaub v. State, but that case is inapposite. In Klaub, we reversed the defendant's conviction for vehicular homicide by reckless driving because, aside from the fact that he struck and killed a pedestrian, there was absolutely no evidence about the manner in w
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