Intoxication Manslaughter / State v. B.P.
Not Guilty Intoxicated Manslaughter x2
Guilty of Manslaughter x2.
2 years Prison on one and 10 years probation on the other.
Client made the poor decision to chase down a vehicle that stole his deep freeze from his vehicle. The State thought he was intoxicated based on inaccurate and unreliable hospital blood testing and flawed crime lab testing. The jury heard all of the evidence and arguments and in the end completely disregarded all blood results. After 2 weeks in trial, I think the jury arrived at a just verdict. Client turned down an offer of 12 TDC and risked 40 TDC. The jury spared his life, but wanted him to do a little bit of hard time for making the poor decision to chase after that thief and ultimately killing two people after getting sideswiped by the thief.
Client was an Army vet who had a few drinks at a dance hall. Looked great on the dancehall video. Went out and someone was messing with his truck and stole his deep freeze. He took off after them on a winding country road. Police all thought it was a simple case finding him at fault in a head on collision where he was clearly on the wrong side with two dead people and a dead dog in the other vehicle. Beer cans from the bed of his truck littered the scene. Wasn’t wearing his seatbelt and had a de-gloving injury to his face and was rushed to the hospital. 2 blood tests from the hospital came back 317 and 210 at different times. Officer smelled odor and heard slurred speech allegedly. He and some biased EMT lady, who hung around until punishment came out, were the only two that smelled it. Didn’t even ask client for breath or blood. Rather just lied about that and got a warrant for his blood. Blood was .19 about 5 hours after the accident. All the bad stuff came in to evidence over our objections.
The truck had tremendous side swipe damage that no one investigated. Dirt wedged in the back door jam that couldn’t be explained. We were able to show all the evidence of a white tuck and trailer that hit him. Evidence that the truck was repaired later that same year. Thanks to Mark Ferguson for tracking down the truck, license plate cams and the car fax to show the truck called 911 but didn’t wait for police. Amanda Culbertson educated the jury about the problems with hospital testing and conversion rate issues. She also educated the jury on huge problems with the blood draw and not inverting one tube at all. Jury said they didn’t believe the blood results at all. Additionally, the decedents were Intoxicated with .144 blood and over CO legal limits for THC with open beer all in their car.
We had concurrent causation issues, blood issues, witnesses getting lawyers appointed for them, jurors crying at the site of the dead bodies and dogs, guns in the vehicle from the shooting range, outbursts from the gallery, 38.23 jury instruction on legality of blood search warrant and a 40 page jury charge with lessers out the wazoo.
The DAs were long in the tooth and played every emotional card they could to try and sway the jury. They were relentless in their attack and had unlimited resources to battle us as every issue we raised. They brought 17 punishment witnesses: 6 about the dog and 3 about hypothetically how our client could have bypassed the Interlock even though there was zero evidence of that and not a single alcohol violation. They dug up his past and called for the jury to send a message against drunk drivers that kill people in Hays County.
Judge ran as efficient as a trial as she could with the State’s witnesses that lasted over a week and all the crazy issues. The court staff was amazing and extremely professional. Really top notch.
My co-counsel, Billy McNabb, kept us dialed in and on track. The client’s family was behind us for the entire 2 weeks filling the pews with love and support. The client could not remember exactly how the accident happened and chose not to testify rather than saving his own skin and lying about it. A true testament to his character.
In the end, I get it and so does the client. The jury took their job super serious and held true to their doubts. The client fully regrets chasing after a $300 deep freeze and getting into a deadly accident.
Big thank you to my office for holding down the fort while I was away. And, having me so well prepared before trial and all the way through. Thank you to my wife for holding down the house and the family. You are my rock. Thanks to our experts for being so professional and well prepared for this dog fight. Thanks to Chris McKinney and Allison Clayton for their legal advice. Thank you to the jurors for all of their hard work. I wouldn’t want to have been in their position. And God, I don’t know why all of this happened or why these lives intersected, but I would say justice was served and fair.
