May a Separate Count of Hit and Run Be Charged for Each Person Injured?

A man who drove his sport utility vehicle into a group of cyclists in Cabarrus County in May 2010, injuring six of them, and drove away without stopping was convicted last year of five counts of felony hit and run inflicting injury and one count of misdemeanor hit and run. The Independent Tribune reported that the attorney for defendant Daniel Wilson argued that the prosecution of Wilson on six criminal charges for a single act of leaving the scene constituted double jeopardy. The State disagreed, and the judge submitted all six counts to the jury, which returned verdicts of guilty. The judge reportedly was more receptive to Wilson’s attorney’s arguments regarding multiple punishments for a single crime at the sentencing phase of the proceedings. She sentenced Wilson to probation for one of the felony convictions, requiring, among other conditions, that he serve 40 days in jail as a condition of probation, and arrested judgment on the five other convictions. Wilson’s argument raises an issue that folks occasionally ask us about: May a driver involved in a single collision resulting in injury to more than one person who leaves the scene be prosecuted for and convicted of a separate crime of hit and run for each person injured? Framework for analysis. While this precise issue has not been addressed by North Carolina’s appellate courts, our courts have considered a fair number of related issues that provide a framework for the analysis.  The central question is what constitutes the unit of prosecution for [...]