## Facts

- On September 24, 1977, Kelly K. Hallett and a group of young people gathered at Hallett’s home in Kearns, Utah, where some drank alcohol.
- Later that night, the group engaged in vandalism involving traffic signs.
- At the intersection of 5215 South and 4620 West, Hallett and co-defendant Richard James Felsch bent a stop sign controlling northbound traffic on 4620 West until it was parallel to the ground and not visible to approaching drivers.
- The group also uprooted another stop sign and placed it in a private yard, and bent a bus stop sign.
- On September 25, 1977, around 9:00 a.m., Krista Limacher drove east on 5215 South with her family.
- At the same time, Betty Jean Carley drove on 4620 West and entered the intersection without stopping because the stop sign was not visible.
- Limacher’s vehicle struck Carley’s vehicle broadside; Carley suffered fatal injuries and died later that day.
- Hallett was charged with manslaughter but, after a bench trial, was convicted of the lesser-included offense of negligent homicide, a class A misdemeanor.

## Issues

1. Whether two prosecution witnesses (Paul Kleemeyer and Kim Erickson) were accomplices whose testimony required corroboration under Utah Code § 77-31-18, and, if so, whether the corroboration was sufficient.
2. Whether the evidence supported negligent homicide, including whether bending the stop sign created a substantial and unjustifiable risk and whether Hallett’s conduct was the proximate cause of the death despite alleged negligence by the decedent.

## Decision

- The Utah Supreme Court affirmed the negligent homicide conviction.
- The court held Kleemeyer and Erickson were not shown to be accomplices because there was no evidence they participated in bending the stop sign.
- The court stated that, even if they were treated as accomplices, independent evidence sufficiently tended to connect Hallett to the offense to satisfy the corroboration statute.
- The court held that disabling a stop sign created a foreseeable, substantial and unjustifiable risk of serious harm, constituting a gross deviation from ordinary care.
- The court rejected the claim that the decedent’s alleged speeding or other negligence was a superseding cause, concluding the disabled stop sign was the primary precipitating cause and the causal chain was not broken.

## Legal Principles

- A witness is an “accomplice” for corroboration purposes only if the evidence shows participation in the charged criminal conduct; association with offenders or presence during related events is insufficient.
- Under Utah Code § 77-31-18 (as then in effect), accomplice testimony must be corroborated by independent evidence that, without relying on the accomplice, tends to connect the defendant to the offense; evidence merely showing the offense or its circumstances is insufficient.
- Criminal negligence supporting negligent homicide involves creating a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death or serious injury that the defendant should foresee, and conduct amounting to a gross deviation from ordinary care.
- Proximate cause in criminal homicide is not negated by concurrent or foreseeable negligence of the victim; an intervening act relieves liability only if it constitutes a superseding cause that breaks the causal chain.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed Hallett’s negligent homicide conviction, holding that disabling a stop sign created a foreseeable and unjustifiable risk leading to death, that the key witnesses were not accomplices (and in any event were sufficiently corroborated), and that any alleged victim negligence did not supersede causation from the hazardous condition Hallett created.


State v. Hallett, 619 P.2d 335 (Utah 1980)