McGowan v. State

Appellant was charged, tried, and convicted of the crime of leaving the scene of a crash involving injury to or death of a person.1 He claims that the trial court *935erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal because the state failed to prove that he knew or should have known that he hit a pedestrian. Based upon the totality of the circumstances and the unusual facts of this case, we agree and reverse.

At trial the following evidence was presented. Around 8:20 a.m. on the morning of November 3, 2010, a road ranger2 patrolled 1-595 east of 1-95 in Broward County. He described the night…