ELLA MAE HAMILTON, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 1983-09-07
No. 82-2241
GRIMES, A.C.J., and RYDER, J., concur.
439 So. 2d 238 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1983) Caution
Cited by 32 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Hamilton was convicted of vehicular homicide under Florida law after striking and killing a five-year-old child while driving at excessive speed in a residential area. The appellate court affirmed the conviction, holding that the evidence sufficiently established the recklessness required under the statute when considering multiple factors beyond speed alone.


Holding

The evidence was sufficient to support the vehicular homicide conviction. While excessive speed alone is insufficient, the court found substantial evidence of guilt when considering speed in conjunction with other factors: clear weather and visibility, a residential area heavily congested with children, posted warning signs, Hamilton's familiarity with the area, failure to reduce speed before or after impact, and failure to exercise any care to avoid collision.


Headnotes

[1] Vehicular homicide requires proof that a person killed another by operating a motor vehicle in a reckless manner likely to cause death or great bodily harm.

[2] Excessive speed alone is insufficient to support a conviction for vehicular homicide.

Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“Vehicular homicide" is the killing of a human being by the operation of a motor vehicle by another in a reckless manner likely to cause the death of, or great bodily harm to, another.”

Definition of the crime under section 782.071, establishing the statutory requirement of reckless operation.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Hamilton struck two small children playing in a roadway on Hunter's Green Drive in Lee County, Florida, killing one five-year-old child. She was trave…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
EVANS, VERNON W., Jr., Associate Judge.

EVANS, VERNON W., Jr., Associate Judge.

Having been convicted of a vehicular homicide under section 782.071, Florida Statutes (1981), the appellant presents four points for review on appeal, the most serious of which challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction.

The accident which tragically took the life of a five year old child occurred when the appellant struck the deceased child and a playmate on Hunter’s Green Drive in Lee County, Florida. Appellant contends that the evidence presented to the jury was insufficient as a matter of law to establish that degree of recklessness in the operation of a motor vehicle required to sustain a conviction under the aforesaid statute. Section 782.071, Florida Statutes (1981), provides:

Vehicular Homicide. — “Vehicular homicide” is the killing of a human being by the operation of a motor vehicle by another in a reckless manner likely to cause the death of, or great bodily harm to, another. Vehicular homicide is a felony of the third degree....

The evidence presented would have permitted the jury to find that the appellant was operating her vehicle in a residential area upwards of 50 miles per hour to 60 miles per hour and struck two small children playing in the roadway. The appellant testified that she never saw the children either before or after impact and suggested she might have been distracted by a movement of her child in the car. No drinking was involved and no mechanical defects were present in appellant’s vehicle.

The oft-repeated statement that excessive speed alone will not support such a conviction is heard once again. There were, however, a number of other factors or circumstances to be considered by the jury, in addition to excessive speed, as we have gleaned them from the record. These factors and circumstances include: (1) that it was a clear, dry day with good visibility; (2) that appellant was traveling on a level two-lane roadway more or less in the middle of the road; (3) that there were no obstructions to her view ahead in the form of parked vehicles, foliage or any other objects; (4) that she was traveling in an all-residential area described by one of the investigating officers as heavily congested with children; (5) that she was familiar with the area and roadway having traveled it on other previous occasions; (6) that the road was posted with both a 30-miles-per-hour speed limit sign and a “SLOW — CHILDREN PLAYING” sign; (7) that the presence of the children in the roadway was observed by several witnesses at a time when appellant was a substantial distance from them;' (8) that she failed to reduce the speed of her vehicle before or after striking the children and that the speed may have actually been increased after the collision as she left the scene; (9) that the appellant failed to exercise even the slightest degree of care to avoid the collision.

We are of the opinion that the substantial evidence presented of grossly excessive speed in a congested residential area when considered along with all the other factors and circumstances enumerated herein support the conviction of vehicular homicide. The other points raised by appellant for review have been considered and are found to be without merit.

The judgment of the conviction is AFFIRMED.

GRIMES, A.C.J., and RYDER, J., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By (17 total)

  • In the Interest of W.E.B., III v. State, 553 So. 2d 323 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989)
    …904, 905 (Fla.1979). . Jackson v. State, 100 So. 2d 839 (Fla. 1st DCA 1958). . See, e.g., Byrd v. State, 531 So. 2d 1004 (Fla. 5th DCA 1988) (estimated speed of 81 m.p.h. in a 45 m.p.h. speed zone with heavy traffic conditions); Hamilton v. State, 439 So. 2d 238 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983) (defendant operating her vehicle in a residential area upwards of 50 to 60 m.p.h. in the presence of children where road was posted with both a 30 m.p.h. speed limit sign and a "SLOW-CHILDREN PLAYING" sign); Savoia v. State, 389 S…
  • Lewek v. State, 702 So. 2d 527 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997)
    …should have been reasonably foreseeable to him that death or great bodily harm was likely to result by driving under these circumstances. See, e.g., McCreary, 371 So. 2d at 1024; Byrd v. State, 531 So. 2d 1004 (Fla. 5th DCA 1988); Hamilton v. State, 439 So. 2d 238 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983); Savoia v. State, 389 So. 2d 294 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980). Because the admissible evidence shows the Defendant killed two people by operating a motor vehicle in a reckless manner likely to cause death or great bodily harm, the State pre…
  • Flavio Santisteban v. State, 72 So. 3d 187 (Fla. 4th DCA 2011)
    …at evidence was insufficient to support conviction for vehicular homicide where the defendant was driving 60 miles per hour in a 30 mile per hour zone before the collision and a minimum of 50 miles per hour at the time of impact); Hamilton v. State, 439 So. 2d 238, 238-39 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983) (holding that speed alone will not support a conviction, but that other factors supported the vehicular homicide conviction where defendant was speeding at 50 to 60 miles per hour in a 30 mile per hour residential area wit…

Previewing 3 of 17 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw