Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated – California Law

In California, the crime of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated is causing a fatal accident by driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and with gross negligence. A conviction is a felony punishable by four, six, or 10 years in prison and a license suspension.

California Penal Code 191.5(a) reads that:

“Gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated is the unlawful killing of a human being without malice aforethought, in the driving of a vehicle, where the driving was in violation of Section 23140, 23152, or 2f3153 of the Vehicle Code, and the killing was either the proximate result of the commission of an unlawful act, not amounting to a felony, and with gross negligence, or the proximate result of the commission of a lawful act that might produce death, in an unlawful manner, and with gross negligence.”

The “grossly negligent act” must be separate from the actual DUI – and must be either:

• a misdemeanor,
• an infraction, or
• an otherwise lawful act that could cause death.
  

Examples of Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated

• While driving with a blood alcohol content (“BAC”) of .08 or greater, a woman drives onto a sidewalk to get past a traffic jam and hits a pedestrian, killing him instantly.
• After consuming methamphetamine, a teenager gets behind the wheel of his car, drives 40 miles over the speed limit, and runs red lights and stop signs. Eventually, he hits another car and kills the driver.

Gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated is one of three DUI homicide crimes in California. This chart compares them.

CALIFORNIA DUI HOMICIDE CRIMES	Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated	Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated	DUI Murder/Watson Murder
Statute	PC 191.5(b)	PC 191.b(a)	PC 187
Elements of the crime	Causing a fatal DUI crash while driving intoxicated and with ordinary negligence	Causing a fatal DUI crash while driving intoxicated and with gross negligence	A repeat DUI offender warned about the dangers of impaired driving causing a fatal DUI crash.
Penalties	Misdemeanor: Up to 1 year and up to $1,000 or Felony: 16 months, 2 years, or 4 years and up to $10,000	Felony: 4, 6, or 10 years and up to $10,000	Felony: 15 years to life and up to $10,000
Probation possible?	Yes	Yes	No

In order to help you better understand the law, our California DUI attorneys will address the following:

• 1. Elements of the Crime
• 2. Penalties
• 3. Defenses
• 4. Related Crimes
• Additional Reading

If, after reading this article, you would like more information, we invite you to contact us at Shouse Law Group.

1. Elements of the Crime

California Penal Code 191.5(a) PC is the crime of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. For you to be convicted, prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt the following elements of the jury instructions:

1. You drove a vehicle while inebriated or under the influence of drugs;
2. While doing so, you also committed another misdemeanor, infraction, or otherwise lawful act that might cause death;
3. You committed that misdemeanor, infraction, or other act with gross negligence; and
4. Your grossly negligent conduct caused the death of another person.¹

In order to better understand this offense, let’s look more closely into its elements.

Driving Intoxicated or Under the Influence of Drugs

You meet the first element of PC 191.5(a) if you drove either:

• drunk and/or
• high and/or
• with a BAC of at least 0.08% (or 0.05% if you are under 21 years old), whether or not you were impaired.²

A Misdemeanor, Infraction, or Lawful Act That Could Cause Death

To meet the second element of PC 191.5(a), you must have either:

• committed a California crime that is not a felony (and separate from the DUI), or
• committed a legal act in a way that could be fatal.³

Example: High from pot, Emilio approaches a congested highway moving at less than 40 mph. He weaves through lanes rapidly and manages to travel at a speed of 75 mph before he crashes into another vehicle, killing the driver.

Emilio had been driving only 10 mph over the posted speed limit—an unlawful act that is not necessarily dangerous. Though since traffic was moving much more slowly than that, the act was dangerous—and could lead to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated charges.

Gross Negligence

Gross negligence is more than ordinary carelessness or error in judgment. You drive with gross negligence when:

1. You act in a reckless way that creates a high risk of death or great bodily injury, and
2. A reasonable person would have known that acting in that way would create such a risk.

However, the combination of driving under the influence and violating a traffic law is not, by itself, enough to add up to gross negligence. Courts consider other aspects of your conduct, including your level of intoxication and how you were driving.

Example: While heavily drunk, John is speeding and swerving down a road. Then, at a blind curve on a downgrade, John speeds across the double yellow line on purpose to pass three cars. He hits an oncoming vehicle, killing the driver.

John’s actions indicate the kind of disregard for human life and consequences that could be called gross negligence and support gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated charges.

If the prosecutor cannot show that you acted with gross negligence, then you may only be guilty of ordinary vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.⁴

Causing the Death of Another Person

Charges for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated apply only if your “grossly negligent” conduct actually causes another person’s death.

This means that the death must be a direct, natural, and probable consequence of your conduct. Your actions do need to be the only cause of death as long as they are a “substantial factor” causing it.⁵

2. Penalties

In California, the criminal sentence for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated includes:

1. Felony (formal) probation,
2. 4, 6, or 10 years in prison, and/or
3. Up to $10,000.

However, the prison sentence becomes 15 years to life if you have a prior conviction of either:

1. Penal Code 191.5(a) – Gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated,
2. Penal Code 191.5(b) – Vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated,
3. Penal Code 192(c) PC – Gross vehicular manslaughter,
4. Penal Code 192.5(a) or (b) – Vehicular manslaughter while operating a boat,
5. Vehicle Code 23152 VC – DUI, or
6. Vehicle Code 23153 VC – DUI causing injury.⁶

 Will I lose my driver’s license?

Yes. If you are convicted of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, then the California DMV will revoke your driver’s license for a period of at least three years.

If you drive during the period when your license is revoked, you will then face additional charges for driving on a suspended license under Vehicle Code 14601 VC.⁷

3. How can I fight PC 191.5 charges?

Here at Shouse Law Group, we know that there are few experiences more devastating than being involved in a car accident where someone is killed. If you were drinking or doing drugs before the accident, it may be tempting to blame yourself. Of course the authorities will be tempted to blame you too.

However, this does not mean the accident was your fault—and it definitely does not mean you should go to prison for it! In our experience, there are several effective defenses that may get charges for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated reduced or dismissed.

You Were Not Actually Drunk or High at the Time of the Accident

We use typical California DUI defenses to challenge the assertion that you were impaired when the accident occurred. For example, we can:

• Attack the evidence that you appeared to be under the influence—fatigue, illness, or just the shock of an accident can all mimic the symptoms of being drunk or high;
• Challenge the validity of your blood or breath test results (for example, your blood or breath testing procedures may have violated California Title 17); and/or
• Question the police procedures used in your arrest and investigation in an effort to uncover police misconduct or other unlawful actions.

You Did Not Act with Gross Negligence

Driving a vehicle requires all of us to make quick decisions—and it can be hard to argue that these decisions, even if they ultimately turn out to be bad ones, were so bad as to be grossly negligent.

If you are facing vehicular manslaughter charges, we may be able to successfully argue that your behavior was merely negligent—not grossly so. This can radically reduce your potential penalties by making you eligible to be charged under PC 191.5(b), California’s ordinary vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated law, instead.

Your Gross Negligence Did Not Cause the Victim’s Death

According to Bakersfield criminal and DUI defense attorney John Murray:⁸

“Sorting out cause and effect in situations involving auto accidents is challenging. Even if you drove with gross negligence and someone ended up dead, there is a chance the prosecution in your gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated case cannot prove that it was your negligence—rather than, say, the negligence of the victim or a third party, or other forces beyond your control—that caused the death.”

We heavily rely on accident reconstruction experts and video footage to piece together exactly what happened. Often we can lay the blame for the death on other causes such as:

• road conditions,
• weather,
• mechanical failures, or
• other drivers.

You Faced a Sudden Emergency and Acted Reasonably Under the Circumstances

While driving, you are only required to use the same care and judgment in an emergency that an ordinarily careful person would use in the same situation. If you did so, then you were not grossly negligent.⁹

Example: Peter is driving home from a boozy dinner on the freeway on a foggy night. One of his headlight bulbs burns out. Terrified by the poor visibility, Peter drives below the freeway minimum speed. The result is that another car rear-ends him going much faster—and a passenger in that car is killed.

Peter may be able to fight the charges by arguing that the emergency—his headlight going out in a fog—justified his actions.

In these cases, we appeal to the prosecutors’ common sense. What would they have done if it were them? If we can show them that you acted like any reasonable person would, they may be willing to drop the charges.

4. Related Crimes

PC 191.5(a) may be charged with or replaced by certain related California crimes. These include the following.

Penal Code 191.5(b) – Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated

PC 191.5(b) has an identical legal definition to PC 191.5(a)–except that for PC 191.5(b), you only need to have acted with ordinary negligence, not gross negligence.

Ordinary negligence is when you fail to act the way a reasonably careful person would in order to avoid harm to someone else.

PC 191.5(b) can be a useful charge reduction or plea bargain from PC 191.5(a) because the penalties are lighter. Attempting to reduce gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated charges to PC 191.5(b) is a common strategy when the evidence for gross negligence is weak.

Vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated without gross negligence is a wobbler–which means it can be charged as either a

• misdemeanor with a maximum 1-year jail sentence, or
• felony with a maximum 4-year prison sentence.¹⁰

Penal Code 192(c) – Vehicular Manslaughter/Gross Vehicular Manslaughter

Penal Code 192(c) is basically identical to PC 191.5(a), with one major difference: Penal Code 192(c) does not require that you be under the influence of alcohol or drugs when the fatal crash occurred.

For this reason, your defense attorney may try to get your charges reduced from Penal Code 191.5(a) PC to Penal Code 192(c) if the evidence that you were intoxicated at the time of the accident is weak.

Gross vehicular manslaughter is a wobbler. The maximum felony jail sentence is six years.

Penal Code 192(c) without gross negligence is a misdemeanor, carrying:

• a maximum penalty of one year in county jail and
• no required suspension of your driver’s license.¹¹
  

 DUI Murder/Watson Murder

The most egregious cases involving DUI-related deaths are prosecuted as murder rather than gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

Specifically, California prosecutors may charge you with DUI murder/”Watson” murder if you kill another person while driving under the influence, and both of the following are true:

1. You are a repeat DUI offender, and
2. You either have been educated about the dangers of DUI, or were given something known as a “Watson advisement” at the time of a prior DUI conviction.¹²

A “Watson advisement” is a warning that it is extremely dangerous to human life to drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and that killing someone while DUI can lead to murder charges.

Watson murder in California is prosecuted under Penal Code 187, California’s murder law.

Additional Reading

For more in-depth information, refer to these scholarly articles:

• Enforcement uniquely predicts reductions in alcohol-impaired crash fatalities – Addiction.
• Deterring drunk driving fatalities: An Economics of Crime Perspective – International Review of Law and Economics.
• Speeding and impaired driving in fatal crashes—Results from in-depth investigations – Traffic Injury Prevention.
• Alcohol-related traffic laws and drunk-driving fatal accidents – Accident Analysis and Prevention.
• The Role of Heavy Drinking in the Risk of Traffic Fatalities – Risk Analysis.

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