Intoxicated Manslaughter / State v. W.C.

It was the night before Thanksgiving and our client was driving home just before midnight from a “Friendsgiving.”  Little did he know that he would meet R.S. who was also celebrating that night.  She was in the Waffle House intoxicated with her husband.  She was so intoxicated that she dropped their baby on the table while her husband was in the bathroom.  The cause the waitress to grab and protect the now screaming baby.  The husband came out and the couple got in a fight.  R.S. stumbled out of the Waffle House, alone, and began walking along the side of a highway.  Her husband thought she was just going to the car.  When she wasn’t there he went to look for her.  At the bridge, there was no sidewalk, but there was a shoulder just as wide as a sidewalk.  R.S. was 4x the legal limit and walking with her back to traffic in the middle of the lane of traffic on a dark unlit bridge.  RS was wearing all black.  Our client never even saw her.  The accident reconstructionist educated the jury on reaction times are delayed at night and also when you are not expecting to see that in the road.  The League City police department tried to make their own recreation by 2 officers driving in the same make of car and one yelling when he could see the person and the other would see where they were compared to buildings on the side of the street.  And then measure the distance.  This was a highly flawed test not just because of the errors in transmitting voice to ear to sight for distance measurement, but also because they knew and were expecting to see someone in the middle of the road.  Out clients front wind shield was shattered but there was no blood, or anything that looked like he hit a person.  There was a yellow deer crossing sign right at the bridge too.  Our client panicked a bit and called his fiancé.  It took him 4 minutes but he stopped on his own.  However, he did not realize an off duty officer was close by and saw the hit and followed and blocked him in.  The client testified he was scared and pulled over and was going back.  The jury took a long time in deliberations and rightfully found our client Not Guilty of Intoxicated Manslaughter.  They said any alleged intoxication on his part was not the cause of this poor girls death.  Unfortunately, she was 4x the legal limit and walking in the middle of a highway.  This accident was unavoidable and she put herself in that deadly position.  The Jury then convicted our client of failing to return to the scene where he should have known that a death may have occurred.  He was convicted of Failing to Stop and Render Aid.  While I trust my client was going back, and there is no definition on how far you are allowed to go before you stop and return, I understand and respect that juries verdict.  They can all sleep well knowing they followed the law on a very tough and tragic case.  It was a very emotional case on both sides.  Thank you to that jury for standing true to your doubts and following the law in this case.