## Facts

- Teddie Van Buskirk and her boyfriend, Robert Rose, argued while driving on a road between Allen and Ada, Oklahoma.
- Rose slapped Van Buskirk, knocking off her eyeglasses; she stopped the car in a low area between two hills and searched for them.
- Van Buskirk testified that as Rose walked around the front of the car toward the driver’s side, she accidentally pressed the accelerator, the car lurched forward, and Rose was lifted onto the hood.
- Rose struck the windshield and fell when Van Buskirk braked; Van Buskirk then reversed, swerved around him, and drove away, leaving him in the roadway.
- A passing motorist saw Rose lying in the road and tried to warn an approaching vehicle, but the vehicle struck and killed Rose.
- Van Buskirk was charged with second-degree murder; the jury convicted her of second-degree manslaughter and sentenced her to two years’ imprisonment.

## Issues

1. Whether the negligent-homicide statute impliedly repealed the second-degree manslaughter statute in motor-vehicle-related deaths, making a manslaughter instruction improper.
2. Whether the facts required the case to be submitted, if at all, under negligent homicide rather than second-degree manslaughter.
3. Whether the trial court committed reversible error by failing to instruct on proximate cause, justifiable homicide, or self-defense.
4. Whether the evidence was sufficient to support second-degree manslaughter.

## Decision

- The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the judgment and sentence.
- The court held that negligent homicide impliedly repeals second-degree manslaughter only to the limited extent deaths are caused by driving a vehicle in reckless disregard of the safety of others.
- The court concluded negligent homicide did not apply because the culpable conduct was leaving Rose in a dangerous position on the roadway, not the initial vehicle contact.
- The court found the instructions, considered as a whole, adequately covered the applicable law and did not require reversal.
- The court held the evidence was sufficient for a prima facie case of second-degree manslaughter based on culpable negligence, and credibility disputes were for the jury.

## Legal Principles

- A later, more specific negligent-homicide statute displaces second-degree manslaughter only within the negligent-homicide statute’s defined scope (death caused by driving in reckless disregard of others’ safety).
- Second-degree manslaughter may be supported by culpable negligence consisting of conduct that shows a disregard of probable consequences beyond ordinary negligence.
- Criminal causation may be established where the defendant’s conduct creates or substantially increases a foreseeable risk that a third party will inflict the fatal harm; an intervening driver does not necessarily break the causal chain.
- A trial court’s failure to give requested instructions is not reversible if the instructions as a whole adequately present the governing law and theories supported by the evidence.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed Van Buskirk’s second-degree manslaughter conviction, holding that negligent homicide did not govern because the death was attributable to her culpably negligent decision to leave the victim in a foreseeably dangerous roadway, and the evidence and instructions were sufficient to sustain the verdict.


Van Buskirk v. State, 611 P.2d 271 (Okla. Crim. App. 1980)