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162 Tex. Crim. 331

Munoz v. State

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

Decided January 4, 1956

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas · decided 1956-01-04

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“At the outset, we are confronted with the contention that the misdemeanor offense of drunken driving may not be utilized and relied upon as the unlawful act constituting negligent homicide of the second degree. By Art. 802c, Vernon’s P.C. [1925], it is a felony for an intoxicated driver of an automobile to kill another person by accident or mistake. Being a felony, such crime could not be prosecuted as the misdemeanor offense of negligent homicide of the second degree.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Bebeau v. State

Relies on McCarthy v. State · Flowers v. State · Barfield v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1956-01-04

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently August 1988

4 state decisions

201956196019701980decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

BELCHER, Judge.

¶1This is a conviction for negligent homicide of the second degree. The unlawful act relied upon as constituting that offense is *332the driving, while intoxicated, of a motor vehicle upon a public highway.

¶2The information alleges also negligence and carelessness and the death of the deceased caused thereby.

¶3The punishment was assessed at eighteen months in jail.

¶4In Jones v. State, 160 Texas Cr. App. 640, 274 S.W. 2d 400, where the conviction was for negligent homicide of the second degree upon the same allegations in the information as in this case, we said:

¶5“At the outset, we are confronted with the contention that the misdemeanor offense of drunken driving may not be utilized and relied upon as the unlawful act constituting negligent homicide of the second degree.

¶6“By Art. 802c, Vernon’s P.C., it is a felony for an intoxicated driver of an automobile to kill another person by accident or mistake. Being a felony, such crime could not be prosecuted as the misdemeanor offense of negligent homicide of the second degree. McCarthy v. State, Teexas Cr. App., 218 S.W. 2d 190; Flowers v. State, 150 Texas Cr. R. 467, 202 S.W. 2d 462, 203 S.W. 2d 539.”

¶7The Jones case is here applicable and controlling and calls for a reversal and dismissal of this prosecution.

¶8The judgment is reversed and the prosecution ordered dismissed.

¶9Opinion approved by the court.

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