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Hunt v. State10/4/2000
ing injury.
This court's decisions in Williams v. State, 732 So. 2d 431 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999), and Waldecker v. State, 707 So. 2d 777 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998), support this conclusion. Although those cases do not address a vehicular homicide/leaving the scene of an accident involving death conviction, their analysis of multiple convictions for leaving the scene of an accident is relevant. In Waldecker, 707 So. 2d at 778, this court held that only one leaving the scene of an accident conviction could stand because the defendant failed to stop at only one accident, regardless of how many people were injured. Citing Waldecker, this court held in Williams, 732 So. 2d at 432-33, that leaving the scene of an accident resulting in injury is a necessarily lesser-included offense of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and that "only one conviction was permissible when a defendant leaves the scene of a single accident." Likewise, Hunt cannot be convicted of vehicular homicide/leaving the scene of an accident involving death and leaving the scene of an accident involving injury. As in Waldecker and Williams, Hunt left the scene of only one accident.
Hunt also asserts that double jeopardy bars his conviction of both vehicular homicide/leaving the scene of an accident involving death and causing death while driving with a suspended license. We agree. In State v. Cooper, 634 So. 2d 1074, 1074-75 (Fla. 1994), the Florida Supreme Court held that a defendant could not be convicted of both DUI manslaughter and causing death while driving with a suspended license. The Florida Supreme Court reasoned that a single death could not support both convictions. Id. at 1075. In Pierce v. State, 718 So. 2d 806, 810 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997), the Fourth District relied on Cooper to hold that double jeopardy likewise bars convictions for both vehicular homicide and causing death while driving with a suspended license. We agree with this analysis and reverse Hunt's conviction for causing death while driving with a suspended license on this basis.
Accordingly, we affirm Hunt's conviction for vehicular homicide/leaving the scene of an accident involving death. We also affirm the convictions as to counts III, IV, and VI, not challenged on appeal. However, we reverse Hunt's convictions and sentences for leaving the scene of an accident involving injury and causing death while driving with a suspended license. Because our reversal affects the scoresheet in this case, we reverse the sentences of the four remaining convictions and remand for resentencing.
Reversed in part and affirmed in part.
PATTERSON, C.J., and WHATLEY, J., Concur.
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