People v. Fitzpatrick CA1/1

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Collision The crash occurred around 2:00 a.m. on June 24, 2021, at an intersection in Richmond. Fitzpatrick was driving with Juantine Jones, Jones’s son, Jihad Seymour, and Seymour’s cousin as his passengers. Seymour testified that the “general feeling in the car” prior to the collision was “loud and fun, the music was on,” and they were drinking alcohol and enjoying themselves. The collision happened when Fitzpatrick’s vehicle and another car driven by Gary Styles converged in an intersection. One of the responding officers described the intersection as a “T intersection,” where South 37th Street “dead ends” into Carlson Boulevard. The intersection was controlled by a traffic light. The officer testified that the speed limit on South 37th Street was 25 miles per hour, while the speed limit on Carlson Boulevard was 35 miles per hour. He characterized the traffic in that area at approximately 2:00 a.m. as “sporadic.” When the officer arrived at the scene of the crash, he observed a white car with “major front-end damage and full air bag deployment” and a black sedan with “major left-side damage and air bag deployment.” Fitzpatrick identified himself as the…