Gerrado Luis Guzman was convicted on two counts of homicide by vehicle in the first degree for causing the deaths of two boys. But Guzman was neither driving nor riding in the only car involved in the fatal accident. Rather, he was convicted based on the fact that he earlier gave beer and his car keys to the 14-year-old boy who was driving the car at the time of the accident. In this difficult case of first impression, we hold that because the evidence supports a finding that Guzman was a party to the underlying crime of driving under the influence of alcohol and that his actions played a substantial part in causing the deaths, there was sufficient evidence to convict him of homicide by vehicle. Construed in favor of the verdict, the facts show that on May 8, 2000, at about 10:00 p.m., Joey Hernandez was at home with his mother who had gone to bed, his 12-year-old brother Robert, and other siblings, when Luis Guzman, a friend and a purported father figure, called and said he was coming over. Guzman arrived with four 12-ounce cans of beer, two of which he drank. He then left with Joey and Robert to get more beer and picked up Joey’s 16-year-old friend Matthew Sarter along the way. Matthew asked Guzman to buy the boys some beer, and he agreed. Guzman bought four 40-ounce beers, and after they returned to the Hernandez home, Guzman passed out beer to the three boys. Other young people arrived and at least two of them also drank some of the beer.
Although disputed, there was evidence that Guzman gave his keys to Joey. Some time later, another carload of young people arrived, and some of them saw Matthew driving Guzman’s car with Joey along for the ride, and they saw Matthew run a stop sign. Joey also testified that Matthew was driving the car. But, Doug Sartor, Matthew’s brother, testified that Joey was driving the car at this time. The driver of the second car, Dewayne Crawford, pulled in front of Matthew and stopped the car. Joey then drove Guzman’s car back to the house. Joey went inside, but Matthew remained in the passenger seat. Joey came back outside with Guzman, got in the driver seat, and, after Joey’s brother Robert jumped into the back seat of the car, drove off. Guzman was standing outside the home close by the car when Joey drove off and did not do or say anything to try to stop Joey.
