2013-M-247             State of Minnesota, Respondent, vs. Eddie Cortez Smith, Appellant.

After a jury trial, appellant Eddie Cortez Smith was found guilty and subsequently convicted of criminal vehicular homicide under Minn. Stat. § 609.21 (2012) for causing the death of 93-year-old Edith Schouveller in a motor vehicle accident.1  The district court sentenced Smith to 120 months’ imprisonment on the criminal vehicular homicide conviction.  Smith appealed and the court of appeals affirmed.  State v. Smith, 819 N.W.2d 724 (Minn. App. 2012).  We affirm.

1. The district court’s instruction on causation was not erroneous.

2. The evidence was sufficient for the jury to conclude that the defendant’s operation of a motor vehicle was the proximate cause of the victim’s death.

3. The evidence was sufficient for the jury to conclude that the victim’s do-not-resuscitate order was not a superseding cause of her death.

Page (Gildea, Anderson, Dietzen, and Stras )

Took no part:  Wright and Lillehaug

[MURDER]

A11-1687