Hamilton

This case is being reversed upon the tenuous ground that the jury was not instructed that to return a verdict of guilty it had to find defendant knew he was involved in the accident. There is no question that to find a person guilty of felony hit-and-run driving it is essential that the driver knows that he was involved in an accident. My disagreement comes with the conclusion of the principal opinion that the jury did not receive adequate instructions on this concept.

It is elemental that instructions must be viewed and construed in a common sense manner and as a whole, and as said in Westover v. City of Los Angeles (1941) 20 Cal.2d 635, 637 [ 128 P.2d 350 ], “[i]f they harmonize as a whole and fairly and accurately state the law, a reversal may not be had because of verbal inaccuracies, or because a separate instruction does not contain all of the elements which are to be gathered from the instructions as a whole.” (See also McShane v. Cleaver (1966) 247 Cal.App.2d 260, 265-266 [ 55 Cal.Rptr. 427 ].) As CALJIC No. 1.01 states in pertinent part, the jurors “.. . are not to single out any certain sentence or any individual point or instruction and ignore the others,” nor should…

After a jury trial, defendant was found to be guilty of felony hit-and-run driving (Veh. Code, § 20001), not guilty of engaging in a speed contest (Veh. Code, § 23109, subd. (a)), and not guilty of engaging in an exhibition of speed (Veh. Code, § 23109, subd. (b)). The jury was unable to reach a verdict on four counts of vehicular manslaughter (Pen. Code, § 192, subd. 3(a)).

Defendant was placed on probation, and he has appealed, 1 seeking reversal of his conviction of felony hit-and-run driving on the grounds of inconsistent verdicts and inadequate and misleading instructions.

On the evening of March 3, 1976, defendant, driving a borrowed Chevrolet and accompanied by Dorce Allen, met one Donnie O’Neal, *128 driving a Javelin and accompanied by his brother. The four men in the two cars visited several bars and stopped for gasoline at a service station eight blocks (approximately one mile) from the accident scene. O’Neal left the station first, slowing down so defendant could catch up; the two cars drove west on Olive Street, side by side, with Allen conversing with O’Neal through open car windows. Officer Paul Comparan of the California Highway Patrol, who was headed…

I concur in the foregoing opinion. I do so reluctantly because it is clear to me that defendant must have known that he was involved in the accident; the fact that he failed to stop at the scene shows a consciousness of guilt.

Nonetheless, the defense evidence showed that when defendant was one to two blocks from the scene of the accident he observed the police car and slowed down to stop. Under the instructions given by the court, the jury could have concluded that defendant was guilty of the charge of felony hit-and-run driving because he knew that an accident had occurred but without specifically finding that he knew that his conduct was a cause of the accident. The fact that the jury acquitted defendant of the charges of engaging in a speed contest and exhibition of speeding lends strong support to the possibility that the jury failed to make the requisite finding of defendant’s awareness of his involvement in the accident. In fact, it is difficult to see how the jury concluded that the defendant was involved in the accident in the light of his acquittal of the other charges.

The dissent assumes that the jury inferred the knowledge requirement from the instructions “as a…

After a jury trial, defendant was found to be guilty of felony hit-and-run driving (Veh. Code, § 20001), not guilty of engaging in a speed contest (Veh. Code, § 23109, subd. (a)), and not guilty of engaging in an exhibition of speed (Veh. Code, § 23109, subd. (b)). The jury was unable to reach a verdict on four counts of vehicular manslaughter (Pen. Code, § 192, subd. 3(a)).

Defendant was placed on probation, and he has appealed, [1] seeking reversal of his conviction of felony hit-and-run driving on the grounds of inconsistent verdicts and inadequate and misleading instructions.

On the evening of March 3, 1976, defendant, driving a borrowed Chevrolet and accompanied by Dorce Allen, met one Donnie O'Neal, driving a Javelin and accompanied by his brother. The four men in the two cars visited several bars and stopped for gasoline at a service station eight blocks (approximately one mile) from the accident scene. O'Neal left the station first, slowing down so defendant could catch up; the two cars drove west on Olive Street, side by side, with Allen conversing with O'Neal through open car windows. Officer Paul Comparan of the California Highway Patrol, who…