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Commonwealth v. Hyland5/27/2005
1 Appellant, Thomas W. Hyland, appeals from the judgment of sentence entered in the Berks County Court of Common Pleas, following his conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol ("DUI") and related summary offenses. We affirm Appellant's convictions but vacate the judgment of sentence and remand for re-sentencing.
2 The trial court opinion sets forth the relevant facts of the case as follows:
On October 18, 2002, at approximately 11:30 p.m., Sarah Arndt heard the sounds of a motor vehicle crash occurring near her home on St. Peters Road, Hereford Township, Berks County. She described the sound as an "initial hit" then silence followed by the sounds of the vehicle hitting the ground and of metal scraping across macadam. She then awakened her brother, Thomas, and told him that a car had crashed outside. Thomas then drove himself and his sister in his pickup truck to the crash site located approximately 100 yards from their house.
When they came upon the accident scene, the brother and sister saw an SUV lying on its driver's side and [Appellant] standing nearby. They saw no damage to the passenger side of the vehicle. [Appellant] approached the pickup truck and Thomas asked him if he was okay. [Appellant] replied that he was and asked Thomas for assistance in righting the SUV. Thomas said the two men would be unable to lift the vehicle. [Appellant] then asked for a ride to a friend's house located about 11/2 miles from the accident scene. Thomas complied with the request and drove [Appellant] to the home of Jay Geiger.
When they reached their destination, [Appellant] entered the house and yelled for Mr. Geiger to get up. About three minutes later [Appellant] and Mr. Geiger exited the house and Thomas drove them back to the crash site where they came upon two men standing near a van. The men said that they had called the police and then assisted Thomas, Mr. Geiger and [Appellant] in flipping the SUV back on its wheels. [Appellant] and Mr. Geiger attempted to drive away but the vehicle was too severely damaged to be operable. The Arndts then returned to their home. Troopers Kent Kaylor and John Finkbiner appeared shortly thereafter to investigate a report of a one-vehicle crash. Before they arrived, [Appellant] had asked Mr. Geiger to say that he, Geiger, had been driving the SUV and Mr. Geiger agreed to do so. Trooper Finkbiner first observed that a stone wall located along the northbound berm of St. Peters Road a short distance from the accident scene had been struck causing rocks and debris to be strewn across the roadway. He also saw scratch marks in the roadbed that stretched across the westbound lane and into and across the eastbound lane indicating that something had slid across St. Peters Road. Finally, he noticed that there was extensive damage to the driver's side of the SUV and that paint on that side of the vehicle had been scraped off exposing the metal underneath.
Trooper Finkbiner spoke with Mr. Geiger who told him that he had been the driver of the SUV and the accident occurred when he had swerved to avoid hitting a deer. Trooper Kaylor, meanwhile, was speaking with [Appellant] who told him that Mr. Geiger had driven the SUV and he had been a passenger. Trooper Kaylor observed damage to the left side of [Appellant's] jeans and to [Appellant's] wallet, which was in a left pants pocket. He also saw injuries to the left side of [Appellant's] body. However, there were no injuries or clothing damage to [Appellant's] right side. Trooper Kaylor also smelled the odor of alcohol on [Appellant's] breath and observed that he was swaying slightly.
The troopers then had a private conversation. Trooper Kaylor pointed ou
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