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State v. Aleman4/4/2005
AFFIRMED
After a jury trial, appellant Jesus Aleman was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of aggravated assault, and three counts of aggravated driving while under the influence of an intoxicant (DUI). The trial court sentenced him to a combination of concurrent and consecutive prison terms totaling eighteen years on the murder and aggravated assault convictions, and a consecutive, ten-year term of supervised probation, a condition of which was a four-month prison term, on the aggravated DUI convictions. Aleman received mitigated, ten-year, concurrent sentences on the murder convictions but slightly aggravated, eight-year sentences on the aggravated assault convictions.
In the sole issue raised on appeal, Aleman contends the trial court erroneously denied his pretrial motion to suppress evidence of blood test results, arguing A.R.S. § 28-673(C) is unconstitutional and, even if it is not, the blood draw pursuant to that statute was illegal. We do not address that issue because we conclude the trial court did not err in alternatively finding the blood draw authorized under A.R.S. § 28-1388(E). We also reject Aleman's challenge to his aggravated sentences, raised in supplemental briefing and based on Blakely v. Washington, ___ U.S. ___, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 159 L.Ed. 2d 403 (2004). Accordingly, we affirm.
BACKGROUND
"In reviewing the denial of a motion to suppress evidence, we view the facts in the light most favorable to upholding the trial court's ruling . . . [and consider] only the evidence presented at the suppression hearing." State v. Wyman, 197 Ariz. 10, 2, 3 P.3d 392, 394 (App. 2000); see also State v. Spears, 184 Ariz. 277, 284, 908 P.2d 1062, 1069 (1996). On April 29, 2000, a car driven by Aleman crossed the centerline of a two-lane highway and collided head-on with an approaching minivan. Aleman was seriously injured and two passengers in his car were killed in the collision. The four family-member occupants of the minivan, two of whom were minors, were seriously injured. Law enforcement officers who responded to the accident scene found Aleman in and out of consciousness and trapped behind his car's steering wheel. Fire department personnel had to cut Aleman out of the car. The two passengers in Aleman's car were pronounced dead at the scene.
One officer testified that he had seen open alcoholic beverage containers in the car and on the roadway and that fire department personnel had told him they had detected the odor of an intoxicating beverage on Aleman's breath and person. Another officer testified he had seen beer cans in Aleman's car and had smelled a "distinct strong odor" of alcohol coming from Aleman. He also testified that from just outside the car by the driver's door, he had noticed the odor of alcohol became stronger when Aleman attempted to speak to the passenger in the front seat. A supervising officer at the scene also detected an odor of alcohol from Aleman's car and was told by another officer that Aleman was "under the influence of alcohol."
Aleman was transported to a hospital, where he became "extremely uncooperative." A hospital phlebotomist testified that Aleman had attempted to get off of the examination table, and it had taken about eight people to hold him down. The phlebotomist considered this a severe trauma case and testified that blood draws are "mandatory" for every trauma patient seen at the hospital. The hospital's trauma pack contained between five to seven blood vials. Regardless of the total number of vials, every pack contained two gray-topped vials that were specifically and routinely drawn for law enforcement purposes in every trauma case. The phlebo
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