## Facts

- Around 11 p.m., a Maryland state trooper responded to a report of a “suspicious vehicle” near Sackertown Road in Crisfield.
- The trooper found a truck parked in a private driveway at night with its lights on and engine running.
- Christopher Columbus Owens, Jr. was unconscious or asleep in the driver’s seat, positioned behind the steering wheel.
- An open can of beer was between Owens’s legs, and two empty beer cans were in the vehicle.
- The trooper observed signs of intoxication, including a strong odor of alcohol, slurred speech, inability to recite the alphabet, and failed field sobriety testing.
- No witness observed Owens driving on a public road; Owens argued the State failed to prove he drove while intoxicated on a public highway.

## Issues

1. Whether circumstantial evidence that an intoxicated person was found unconscious behind the wheel of a running vehicle in a private driveway was legally sufficient to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he had driven while intoxicated on a public highway.

## Decision

- The Court of Special Appeals of Maryland affirmed the conviction for driving while intoxicated.
- The court held that, considering the attendant circumstances, the inference that Owens had recently driven to the driveway from elsewhere was more reasonable than the competing innocent inference that he had not yet driven.

## Legal Principles

- A conviction based solely on circumstantial evidence is not sustained unless the circumstances are inconsistent with any reasonable hypothesis of innocence.
- The fact-finder need not eliminate far-fetched or speculative innocent explanations; the inquiry focuses on whether a realistic hypothesis of innocence remains reasonable in light of all surrounding circumstances.
- Legal sufficiency is satisfied if the total circumstances permit a rational fact-finder to conclude guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, even if innocence cannot be ruled out with absolute certainty.

## Conclusion

Because the late hour, the running vehicle with lights on, the location in a private driveway, and evidence of drinking in the truck made it more reasonable that Owens had arrived there by driving while intoxicated than that he had merely started the truck and passed out before driving, the circumstantial evidence was legally sufficient and the DWI conviction was affirmed.


Owens v. State, 93 Md. App. 162 (Md. Ct. Spec. App. 1992)