## Facts

- Kenneth Yarborough drove a van on Interstate 25 at about 1:00 a.m. and approached the scene of an earlier multi-car accident.
- A vehicle from the earlier accident was stopped in the southbound lanes with headlights facing oncoming traffic; another vehicle was on the shoulder.
- Yarborough failed to perceive the hazard until late and collided with a parked station wagon.
- The collision killed one occupant, Steven Kumagai, and injured two other people.
- Evidence at trial included alcohol found in the van, observations that Yarborough appeared intoxicated, and a failed sobriety test.
- Yarborough was charged with homicide by vehicle by reckless driving and two counts of great bodily harm by vehicle; the jury acquitted him on those charges.
- Over objection, the trial court instructed the jury on felony involuntary manslaughter predicated on the misdemeanor of careless driving, permitting conviction upon proof of careless driving causing death.
- The jury convicted Yarborough of involuntary manslaughter by careless driving as a lesser-included offense; the Court of Appeals reversed; the Supreme Court granted certiorari.

## Issues

1. Whether felony involuntary manslaughter arising from a motor-vehicle death may be predicated on the ordinary-negligence standard of careless driving, or instead requires proof of criminal negligence.
2. Whether the specific homicide-by-vehicle statute governing motor-vehicle deaths precludes prosecution under the general involuntary-manslaughter statute on the same facts, particularly after an acquittal under the vehicular-homicide charge.

## Decision

- The New Mexico Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals and left the reversal of Yarborough’s involuntary-manslaughter conviction in place.
- The Court held that involuntary manslaughter requires proof of criminal negligence and cannot be based solely on the ordinary-negligence standard embodied in the careless-driving misdemeanor.
- The Court agreed that the Legislature’s specific homicide-by-vehicle statutory scheme controls prosecutions for motor-vehicle-caused deaths and precludes using the general involuntary-manslaughter statute in this context as charged and tried.
- Because the jury was instructed in a manner that allowed felony conviction without requiring criminal negligence, the conviction could not stand.

## Legal Principles

- Involuntary manslaughter in New Mexico, whether predicated on a lawful act done unlawfully or on an unlawful act (including a misdemeanor), requires criminal negligence rather than ordinary (civil) negligence.
- A felony homicide conviction must rest on a culpable mental state reflecting greater moral blameworthiness than mere carelessness or imprudence.
- Where the Legislature has enacted a specific vehicular-homicide framework, that scheme governs deaths caused by operation of a motor vehicle and constrains resort to the general involuntary-manslaughter statute, especially when the alternative theory would lower the culpability standard.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed reversal of Yarborough’s felony involuntary-manslaughter conviction because involuntary manslaughter requires criminal negligence and New Mexico’s specific vehicular-homicide statutes govern motor-vehicle deaths, preventing a felony conviction based only on careless driving after an acquittal under the vehicular-homicide charge.


State v. Yarborough, 930 P.2d 131 (N.M. 1996)