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State v. Rodriguez6/10/2004
On the afternoon of May 9, 2001, Heather Jo Rodriguez was driving southbound on Main Street, in Salt Lake City, accompanied by her friend, Terry Stewart. Between 4:45 and 4:50 pm, soon after she passed through the controlled intersection of 17th South and Main Street, Rodriguez abruptly turned left into oncoming traffic, directly in front of a school bus. Rodriguez's sudden turn gave the bus driver no time to evade the car, and the bus struck the passenger side of Rodriguez's car, throwing the car off of the road and onto a nearby yard. The bus driver immediately reported the accident. Paramedics arrived on the scene at 4:50 pm. After removing Rodriguez from the vehicle, the paramedics determined that she was in critical condition and quickly moved her to an ambulance, which transported her to LDS Hospital. The paramedics then noted that Stewart had severe head injuries and determined that she was near death and likely to die. They moved her to an ambulance for transport to the University Hospital. At about that point, the first of the responding Salt Lake City police officers arrived on the scene.
**3 As the officers began to examine the scene and look for possible witnesses they *856 were approached by someone who appeared to be a paramedic. That person told the officers that the occupants of Rodriguez's car smelled of alcohol. When the officers looked in Rodriguez's car, they found a purse, which turned out to be Stewart's. In the purse the officers found an open, partially empty bottle of vodka. Soon thereafter, the supervising officer arrived. He was informed of the circumstances surrounding the accident, the apparent paramedic's observations, and the partially empty bottle of vodka found in the car. He immediately requested that dispatch send an officer to obtain a blood sample from Rodriguez.
**4 At 5:10 pm--no more than twenty-five minutes after the accident occurred--dispatch instructed officer Nate Swensen to locate the driver and "witness a blood draw." [FN1] Swensen first drove to the University Hospital. There, he learned that the driver had been taken to LDS Hospital and that Stewart, the passenger, was expected to die. He then drove to LDS Hospital. Although he did not know Rodriguez's name at the time, when Swensen entered the emergency room he asked the staff to direct him to the "patient that was brought in from the traffic accident." The staff directed him to the CT room where Swensen found Rodriguez lying on a CT table, waiting for a CT scan. He noticed that she was being very uncooperative with the medical staff and that her breath had a heavy odor of alcohol. He also noticed that her eyes were red and that her speech was slurred. In general, Swensen described Rodriguez as "uncooperative," "very angry," and "belligerent."
FN1. The trial court made no findings concerning the timing of these events; consequently, we rely on the only reliable time reference in the record: that of the responding officer. The supervising officer testified that he did not remember the exact time he had called dispatch.
**5 Upon locating Rodriguez, Swensen asked her some questions, but found her to be uncooperative. He then waited between twenty and twenty-five minutes for the blood draw technician to arrive. When the technician arrived, Swensen informed Rodriguez that they "were going to draw blood from her just as we do in accidents." The technician drew blood from an IV line that had been inserted into Rodriguez's arm upon her arrival. The vials containing the blood were then labeled, stored, and the blood was eventually tested. The test revealed that, at the time of the blood draw, Rodriguez's blood-alcohol level was .39.
**6 Stewart died and Rodriguez was charged with one count of automobile homicide. Rodriguez file
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