People v. Ortiz Calderón
People v. Ortiz Calderón
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The information before ns, after dne averments of time, place and the like, set up in effect that the defendant, Leonardo Ortiz Calderón, while he was driving a truck without dne care, namely, without sounding a horn or warning, without using his emergency brake and going at an exaggerated speed, struck and killed Eamón Negrón. The case was tried by a jury, the defendant found guilty and sentenced to two years at hard labor.
Likewise we agree with the fiscal that the alleged objections were in the nature of defects of form and the defendant should have objected before the trial or should have asked for a bill of particulars. People v. París, 25 P.R.R. 103; People v. Parkhurst, 29 P.R.R. 856.
The conclusion that the defendant was not exercising due care, as set out in the information, was amply sustained by the evidence which tended to show that on the day of the accident the appellant was in charge of a truck going from Ponce to Aibonito; that upon approaching the latter city he met a funeral procession of a policeman; that there was quite a large crowd assembled and among them various policemen who had attended the ceremonies; that one or more of the policemen noticed that the truck was coming at a great rate of speed and without sounding an alarm; that one of the policemen tried to indicate to the defendant that he should halt his truck, but that despite his efforts the truck
The third assignment of error relates to the failure of the court to instruct on certain features of the law of criminal negligence. At the request of the defendant the court gave certain instructions in regard thereto and at the close of the said instructions the defendant failed specifically to except, nr to ask for additional instructions. We doubt if any error was committed, but if so it was waived. People v. Boria, 12 P.R.R. 166; People v. Llauger, 14 P.R.R. 534.
The defendant complained of certain instructions given by the court taken almost literally from the case of People v. Blandford, supra. That case perhaps specifically relates to the duties of a defendant passing people on the road going in the same direction, but it does in fact relate to the duties of a defendant generally when he is driving an automobile. The fiscal agrees that in the present case the people were coming in a different direction. The court and the appellant had each cited from the Blandford Case to justify their respective positions. The court automatically cited passages from the ease that necessarily had no application. We do not find that the appellant suffered any prejudice from the mistaken citations. Mere superfluous words are not generally ground for assigning error.
The fifth assignment of error relates to the failure of the court to instruct the jury that the defendant, equally with travelers, had a right to expect that the travelers would give him a right of passage, or something to that effect. No one, however, has the right to travel on the road at an undue rate
The judgment should he affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.