Commonwealth v. Packer

OPINION

JUSTICE DONOHUE

With the emergence of the use of new, powerful and immediate intoxicants, we granted allowance of appeal to reaffirm long established distinctions between ordinary recklessness and malice in the context of a death or serious bodily injury caused by driving under the influence of alcohol and/or a controlled substance. In the case before us, Matthew Snyder was killed in an automobile collision caused by Danielle Nicole Packer, who inhaled (or “huffed”) difluoroethane (“DFE”)1 imme*163diately before and while operating her vehicle. Based on Packer’s history of losing…