Appeal
from the Superior Court, Trial Court No. 3PA-11-2791 CR Third
Judicial District, Palmer, Gregory Heath, Judge.
Andrew
Steiner, Attorney at Law, Bend, Oregon, for the Appellant.
Nancy
R. Simel, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Criminal
Appeals, Anchorage, and Craig W. Richards, Attorney General,
Juneau, for the Appellee.
Before: Mannheimer, Chief Judge, Allard, Judge, and Suddock,
Superior Court Judge. [*]
OPINION
ALLARD
JUDGE.
Bobby
Jack Bass was convicted of failure to render assistance to an
injured person after a vehicle accident, a class C felony. On
appeal, he argues that the superior court improperly
instructed the jury on the elements of that crime.
We
agree with Bass, and we reverse his conviction.
Relevant
legal background
A pair
of statutes, AS 28.35.050 and AS 28.35.060, define the duties
of a driver who is involved in an accident where one or more
people are injured or killed.[1]
Alaska
Statute 28.3 5.050(a) declares that the driver "shall
immediately stop the vehicle at the scene of the accident or
as close to it as possible, " and that the driver shall
then "return to, and remain at, the scene until the
[driver] has fulfilled the requirements of AS
28.35.060."
Subsection
(a) of AS 28.35.060 defines two distinct groups of duties
that the driver must fulfill. First, the driver must give his
or her "name, address, and vehicle license number"
to the injured person or to some other attending person.
Second, the driver must "render ... reasonable
assistance" to the injured person, "including
making of arrangements for attendance upon the person by a
physician and [for transporting the person], in a manner that
will not cause further injury, to a hospital for medical
treatment if it is apparent that treatment is
desirable."
Although
the driver must comply with both sets of duties, AS
28.35.060(b) and (c) create different penalties for a
defendant's failure to perform each duty. Under AS
28.35.060(b), a driver who fails to provide identifying
information is guilty of a misdemeanor and faces up to 1
year's imprisonment. Under AS 28.35.060(c), a driver who
fails to render reasonable assistance to an injured person is
guilty of a felony and faces up to 10 years'
imprisonment.
Why
we reverse Bass's conviction
In the
current case, Bass was indicted under the felony provision of
AS 28.35.060. That is, he was charged with failing to remain
at the scene until he had rendered reasonable ...