People v. Delhaye

Defendant was convicted, after bench trial, of felony and misdemeanor aggravated unlawful use of an electronic communication device. Evidence showed that Defendant was engaged in texting conversations in the 4 minutes prior to the collision when his truck collided with a car. They exchanged 10 text messages in a 4-minute period. These charges were not subject to compulsory joinder with his traffic citation for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. Citation issued was brought by a uniform citation and complaint form, and Defendant pled guilty to traffic citation. Charges were superseded by indictment for a felony violation of the Vehicle Code based on death of passenger in other car, and State filed criminal complaint for misdemeanor violation of Code based upon great bodily harm to driver of other car. It was not unreasonable for court to conclude that Defendant's use of his cell phone was a proximate cause of passenger's death and driver's injuries. State was not required to prove that Defendant was sending or reading a text message at the exact moment of the collision. (HUTCHINSON and HUDSON, concurring.)