Rhomer v. Texas

Appellant William Rhomer was convicted by jury of felony murder for causing the death of another while committing felony driving while intoxicated. He was sentenced to seventy-five years in prison. The court of appeals affirmed. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Appellant’s petition for discretionary review to decide whether an accident reconstruction expert could testify about a specific type of accident reconstruction in which he had no formal training and whether accident reconstruction should be governed by the tests announced in Kelly v. Texas (824 S.W.2d 58 (1992) or Nenno v. Texas, 970 S.W.2d 549 (1998) for evaluating the reliability of the expert testimony. The Court determined the Nenno test was applicable, and that: (1) the field of accident reconstruction was a legitimate one; (2) the subject matter of the expert's testimony was within the scope of that field; and (3) his testimony properly relied upon and utilized the principles involved in the field, i.e., examining the physical evidence in the context of the crash site to draw conclusions about the location and cause of the crash. The Court therefore affirmed the court of appeals. View "Rhomer v. Texas" on Justia Law