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Putman v. State

The vehicular homicide and reckless driving defendant's 11 prior speeding convictions were relevant to show that he routinely drove his car with disregard for the safety of persons or property.

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A Hall County jury found Patrick Putman guilty of first degree vehicular homicide with reckless driving as the underlying offense in that Putman drove his vehicle “in excess of the posted speed limit, passed another motorist in a reckless manner, and failed to keep his vehicle in a single lane,” thereby causing the death of Jody Bejin. In addition, the jury found Putman guilty on the separately indicted counts of improper passing, and failure to maintain a lane. Further, in the middle of trial, Putman was permitted to enter a guilty plea on two additional counts of the indictment, speeding 60 in a 45 mph zone and speeding driving in excess of the posted limit. He appeals from his conviction, claiming error in 1 the State’s introduction of 11 prior speeding offenses as similar transaction evidence, and 2 the trial court’s failure to grant a motion for mistrial made in response to a portion of the prosecutor’s closing argument. Because Putman’s numerous prior acts of speeding were admissible to demonstrate a repeated course of reckless disregard for safety and because Putman failed to renew his objection to the prosecutor’s closing argument after the trial court gave curative instructions, we affirm his conviction.

1. Putman pled guilty to two separate speeding counts of the indictment and conceded at trial that the death of the victim was caused by his speeding. He now claims that the introduction of his guilty pleas to 11 prior acts of speeding was error, because: a there was no longer any issue as to speeding so as to make such prior acts relevant; b the prior acts evidence was not similar to the indicted act; c the prior acts evidence was not introduced for a proper purpose, and d the prejudicial impact of the prior acts evidence improperly outweighed its probative value. We disagree with these contentions.

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