451 So. 2d 401 | Ala. Crim. App. | 1984
Appellant Thomason was convicted of manslaughter as a result of an automobile collision and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. On appeal he asserts that the state failed to prove a prima facie case of homicide.
Since there were no living eye-witnesses to this collision except the appellant, the *402 state's case was necessarily based upon circumstantial evidence. The state's case tended to prove that the appellant was driving on the wrong side of the road and crashed head-on into another vehicle occupied by two women, both of whom were killed instantly. Twenty minutes after the officers arrived at the scene of the collision, appellant was taken to the hospital. Because he became belligerent when an attempt was made to take a blood sample from him, the sample had to be drawn after handcuffing him to the bed. Appellant's blood alcohol at that time was .30.
Appellant had been arrested for drunk driving offenses on previous occasions. The question whether the state presented sufficient circumstantial evidence to warrant submission of the case to the jury is due to be answered in the affirmative. In a similar case, Jolly v. State,
"In reviewing the sufficiency of circumstantial evidence the test to be applied is `whether the jury might reasonably find that the evidence excluded every reasonable hypothesis except that of guilt; not whether such evidence excludes every reasonable hypothesis but guilt, but whether a jury might reasonably so conclude.' [Citations omitted.] Dolvin v. State,
391 So.2d 133 ,137 (Ala. 1980); Cumbo v. State,368 So.2d 871 ,874 (Ala.Cr.App. 1978), cert. denied,368 So.2d 877 (Ala. 1979). On review, this Court is required to consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution. McCord v. State,373 So.2d 1242 (Ala.Cr.App. 1979); Coleman v. State,37 Ala. App. 406 ,69 So.2d 481 (1954). This Court must take the evidence favorable to the prosecution as true, and accord to the State all legitimate inferences therefrom. Johnson v. State,378 So.2d 1164 (Ala.Cr.App.), cert. quashed, Ex Parte Johnson,378 So.2d 1173 (Ala. 1979)."
Applying these principles to this case, we conclude that the court properly sent the case to the jury. Palmer v. State,
AFFIRMED.
All the Judges concur.