California Court of Appeal

A conviction for marijuana DUI and inflicting great bodily injury is reversed, where: 1) unconsciousness was one of the defendant's primary defenses to the charged crimes; 2) the failure to instruct the jury on unconsciousness effectively removed the defendant's principal defense from the jury's consideration; 3) the harm to the defendant was then magnified by the instruction from CALCRIM No. 2100 as read, that it is not a defense that something else impaired his ability to drive; and 4) under either the Chapman or Watson standard of review, the instructional error was prejudicial.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/28/2012
• Published 03/28/2012

Judges

• Butz

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Tracy A. Rogers, Stephen G. Herndon