Hyatt v. State
Hyatt v. State
Opinion of the Court
[¶ 1] A jury convicted Appellant, Chad Christopher Hyatt, of driving under the influence of alcohol (fourth or subsequent offense within ten years), in violation of
ISSUE
[¶ 2] Was there sufficient evidence at trial to support Mr. Hyatt's conviction for driving under the influence (fourth or subsequent offense within ten years)?
FACTS
[¶ 3] At around 10:00 p.m. on October 16, 2016, Chase Stricklin
[¶ 4] Rick testified that he was at his home when Chase called him a little after 10:00 p.m. to tell him what was going on behind the shop. He made a REDDI (Report Every Drunk Driver Immediately) report to the police, got dressed, and went outside to see what was happening. He, too, witnessed an early 1980's brown Chevy truck "going up and down the highway, kind of accelerating, decelerating, accelerating, decelerating, making a lot of noise and whatnot." He testified that the truck "headed north up the highway, then south down the highway. Then it turned off into town, ... going around a couple of blocks, then came back out to the highway ... and headed ... south out of Rock River." After seeing the truck himself, Rick made a second REDDI report to the police to give dispatch a better description of what was going on and where the truck was located. Rick also testified that he thought the *527truck was "two-tone, but [he could not] say 100 percent certain." Rick explained that there is never much traffic late at night in Rock River and that he might have seen one or two other vehicles that night. He also testified that he was unable to get a license plate number and could not see who was driving or how many people were in the truck.
[¶ 5] Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Michael Petruso received a REDDI report at 10:19 p.m. on October 20, 2016, indicating that an older two-tone brown Chevy pick-up was driving through fields in Rock River. Trooper Petruso, who was south of Laramie on Highway 287, headed north toward Rock River on Highway 30. At 10:52 p.m., 33 minutes after the REDDI report was received, Trooper Petruso encountered a two-tone brown Chevy pick-up truck parked off the shoulder and facing south on Highway 30, approximately .4 miles south of Rock River. The truck was not running and Trooper Petruso never saw it in motion.
[¶ 6] Trooper Petruso testified that the truck was registered to Mr. Hyatt. Trooper Petruso approached the driver's side and found Mr. Hyatt sitting in the passenger seat, slouched over but awake. Mr. Hyatt had red, bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. Trooper Petruso observed beer cans on the floor, an open beer can in the center console area, and a strong odor of flavored alcoholic beverage emanating from inside the truck. When Trooper Petruso asked Mr. Hyatt how he was doing, Mr. Hyatt responded with "a couple swear words" and said that he had just run out of gas. Trooper Petruso asked Mr. Hyatt to go back to his patrol car with him and Mr. Hyatt responded, "What are you going to do? Are you going to arrest me for DUI?" and then Mr. Hyatt began to cry.
[¶ 7] After Trooper Petruso asked him multiple times, Mr. Hyatt got out of the vehicle and sat on the tailgate. Trooper Petruso pointed out beer cans in the bed of the truck. When Trooper Petruso asked Mr. Hyatt how he got there, he replied, "I pulled over," explaining that he had run out of gas. Mr. Hyatt stated that he tried to get fuel before he left town and that after he ran out of gas, he pulled his car off the road and had been sleeping there for "roughly an hour and a half." Mr. Hyatt told Trooper Petruso that he did not drink in his truck, and then said that he had been drinking in his truck since the time he stopped. Mr. Hyatt also told Trooper Petruso that a friend of his had walked to Rock River to get some fuel. He could not name the friend, but kept telling Trooper Petruso to "call him up," and when Trooper Petruso said that he did not have his number, Mr. Hyatt did not provide his friend's phone number. Trooper Petruso never asked Mr. Hyatt what direction his friend went or where he went. Trooper Petruso testified that he glanced in the truck, but did not see the keys to the vehicle. However, he did notice that in the "dash underneath the ignition, there were wires just kind of ripped out and the speedometer was all out of whack," which "made it look like maybe this was another way of starting the vehicle" without the keys.
[¶ 8] Mr. Hyatt declined to perform field sobriety tests; Trooper Petruso arrested him and took him to the Albany County Detention Center. Once at the detention center, Trooper Petruso sought a search warrant to obtain a blood sample from Mr. Hyatt. After the warrant issued, Mr. Hyatt agreed to provide a breath sample, which was taken at 12:34 a.m. on October 21 and returned a result of 0.116% blood alcohol concentration.
[¶ 9] The State charged Mr. Hyatt with driving while under the influence, his fourth offense within ten years, in violation of
STANDARD OF REVIEW
[¶ 10] When we review a claim of insufficiency of the evidence, we "examine *528and accept as true the State's evidence and all reasonable inferences which can be drawn from it." Villarreal v. State ,
We do not consider "whether or not the evidence was sufficient to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but [instead] whether or not the evidence could reasonably support such a finding by the factfinder." Hill v. State ,2016 WY 27 , ¶ 13,371 P.3d 553 , 558 (Wyo. 2016) (citing Levengood v. State ,2014 WY 138 , ¶ 12,336 P.3d 1201 , 1203 (Wyo. 2014) ). "We will not reweigh the evidence nor will we re-examine the credibility of the witnesses." Hill ,2016 WY 27 , ¶ 12,371 P.3d at 558 (citation omitted). We review the sufficiency of the evidence "from this perspective because we defer to the jury as the fact-finder and assume they believed only the evidence adverse to the defendant since they found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." Oldman [v. State ],2015 WY 121 , ¶ 5, 359 P.3d [964,] 966 [ (Wyo. 2015) ].
Id . at ¶¶ 45,
DISCUSSION
[¶ 11]
[¶ 12] Mr. Hyatt first argues that, when viewed in the light most favorable to the State, there was insufficient evidence to show that his truck was the same truck that was identified in the REDDI report. He contends that Chase did not have a clear view of the truck because he only "observed a 'brownish' Chevy truck from a distance of over 200 yards." He asserts that Rick's testimony was no more definite because he testified that he saw "an '80's model brown Chevy truck accelerating and decelerating." He contrasts that evidence with the fact that his truck, while it was an 1980's model Chevrolet, was two-toned, not just brownish. He also emphasizes Rick's testimony that he saw two other vehicles on the road that night and argues that either one of those vehicles could have been the subject of the REDDI reports. Mr. Hyatt concludes that, based upon this evidence, the State did not prove his truck was the truck that was the subject of the REDDI report, and therefore, the State could not establish that he was operating his truck in a manner consistent with intoxication.
[¶ 13] We do not find this argument persuasive. Both Chase and Rick described a "brownish" 1980's Chevrolet pickup as the subject of the report; Rick testified that he thought it was "two-tone, but [he could not] say 100 percent certain." Mr. Hyatt's truck was a 1980's model Chevrolet two-toned, brown and tan, pickup. Both Chase and Rick testified that they last saw the truck heading south on Highway 30, out of Rock River; Trooper Petruso located the truck south of Rock River on the shoulder of Highway 30; and Mr. Hyatt told Trooper Petruso that he had come from town. When examined in the light most favorable to the State, this evidence was sufficient for a jury to reasonably conclude that Mr. Hyatt's truck was the same truck that was the subject of the REDDI reports.
[¶ 14] Mr. Hyatt next argues that the State produced insufficient evidence for a *529reasonable jury to find that he was driving the truck, relying upon Snell v. State ,
[¶ 15] Mr. Hyatt asserts that the facts in his case are "considerably weaker" than the facts in Snell because neither the REDDI reports nor the witnesses could provide a description of the driver of the truck, and that, therefore, a rational jury could not conclude that he was driving the vehicle on the night in question. Mr. Hyatt, however, overlooks the significant difference in procedural posture and standard of review between the two cases. Our review of the sufficiency of an affidavit to establish probable cause is de novo. Id . at ¶ 10,
[¶ 16] In contrast, our standard of review in this case requires us to "accept as true the State's evidence and disregard any conflicting evidence presented by" Mr. Hyatt to determine whether there was sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to conclude that Mr. Hyatt was the driver. Barrowes v. State ,
[¶ 17] Even if our standard of review permitted consideration of Mr. Hyatt's statements indicating that his friend was driving, it would be unavailing. It was within the jury's purview to discount or even disregard that testimony. It "is the jury's responsibility to resolve conflicts in the testimony, weigh the evidence, and draw reasonable inferences from the facts." Conine v. State ,
[¶ 18] Mr. Hyatt's final argument is that the State presented insufficient evidence to establish that he was under the influence of alcohol at the time he was driving the truck. Mr. Hyatt contends that the State presented no evidence that would indicate that he was over the 0.08% intoxication level prior to the time the truck was parked on the side of Highway 30. He claims that "[a]t best, the State proved that [he] was under the influence of alcohol (0.08% blood alcohol concentration or higher) when Trooper Petruso encountered him-more than thirty (30) minutes after the REDDI report was called in," and argues that the only rational conclusion was that he became intoxicated at some point in time prior to Trooper Petruso's initial contact with him, but was not necessarily intoxicated while driving the truck.
[¶ 19] The evidence presented at trial reveals: Trooper Petruso located Mr. Hyatt at 10:52 p.m., 33 minutes after receiving the REDDI report and conducted Mr. Hyatt's breath test 1 hour and 42 minutes after that. Moss Kent, the forensic toxicologist called by the State, calculated that the amount of alcohol processed by Mr. Hyatt's system between the time Trooper Petruso found Mr. Hyatt and his breath test could have ranged between .017 (the amount a novice drinker would process) and .0476 (the amount a heavy drinker would process). That would mean Mr. Hyatt's blood alcohol content at the time Trooper Petruso encountered him at 10:52 p.m. was between 0.127 and 0.1576. Mr. Kent testified that at the time of the REDDI reports, Mr. Hyatt's blood alcohol content would have been between 0.1325 and 0.1437, if he did not consume any alcohol between that time and the time Trooper Petruso found him. Mr. Kent also explained that it takes time for alcohol to be absorbed into the bloodstream and that it "usually takes 45 minutes, thereabouts, maybe an hour for somebody to ... absorb their last drink." Both Trooper Petruso and Corporal Houston, a second officer responding to the REDDI report, testified that when they encountered Mr. Hyatt, he showed signs of intoxication, including slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, emotional behavior, and the smell of alcohol. When evaluated in the light most favorable to the State, the jury could have reasonably inferred that this evidence established Mr. Hyatt drank before he ran out of gas and pulled to the side of the road and that his blood alcohol content exceeded 0.08% at that time. This conclusion, taken in concert with the evidence that Mr. Hyatt's truck was being driven recklessly through Rock River, was sufficient to allow the jury to reasonably conclude that Mr. Hyatt was legally intoxicated and driving his truck at the time the REDDI report was made.
CONCLUSION
[¶ 20] The State's evidence sufficiently supported its charge that Mr. Hyatt drove under the influence of alcohol (fourth or subsequent offense within ten years), in violation of
Chase Stricklin and his father, Rick Stricklin, both testified at the trial. To avoid confusion, we will refer to them by their first names.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Chad Christopher HYATT, (Defendant) v. The STATE of Wyoming, (Plaintiff).
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published