Hasselhoff v. State

MOYLAN, Judge. The appellant, Selmar C. Hasselhoff, was convicted by a Baltimore County jury, presided over by Judge Austin W. Brizendine, of manslaughter by automobile and homicide by motor vehicle while intoxicated. 1 Upon this appeal, he raises essentially two contentions: 1) That evidence of a blood alcohol test should have been suppressed; and 2) That absent the blood alcohol evidence, the remaining evidence was not legally sufficient to sustain the convictions. Because we find no merit in the appellant’s first contention, the second contention is obviously mooted. The thrust of the appellant’s first contention is that the blood alcohol test was administered to him more than two hours after his apprehension and was, therefore, inadmissible under Md.Code, Cts. & Jud.Proc.

Article, § 10-303. We find no merit to this contention for three separate reasons. In the first place, we do not agree that the test was taken more than two hours after the appellant was apprehended. The fatal accident occurred at some time between 11:20 and 11:30 p.m. on December 18, 1983.

The manslaughter victim, Jennifer Hegarty, the driver of the vehicle that suffered a head-on collision with the vehicle driven by the appellant, was pronounced dead by the first medical personnel on the scene at 11:40 p.m. The chief investigating officer, Craig Langhirt, arrived at the scene at 11:50 p.m. His initial responsibility was to see to the care of the dying or wounded. Although he conversed briefly with the appellant and gathered cause to believe that the appellant may have been intoxicated, his only action with respect to the appellant was to summon the ambulance personnel to care for the appellant’s wounds.

At shortly after midnight, the ⁶⁴⁸ appellant was taken by ambulance, without any police in attendance, to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. Officer Langhirt arrived in the emergency room of G.B.M.C. at 1:55 a.m., informed the appellant that Ms. Hegarty was dead, and ordered a blood sample of the appellant taken for testing. The blood test was administered at 2:16 a.m., two hours and