Aggravated DUI, other charges against Fonseca can proceed
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Fifth District Appellate Court has affirmed a ruling that will allow charges filed against Arnulfo Fonseca in 2008 to proceed.
The panel of judges determined in an Aug. 16 ruling that charges filed after his acquittal on murder charges April 8, 2008 don't constitute double jeopardy. So the case filed a week afterward can proceed.
Fonseca, 38, was charged by then-State's Attorney David Nelson with aggravated DUI, obstructing justice and driving on a revoked license in April 2008, one week after his acquittal by a jury of murdering Ashleigh Miller. Judge Walden Morris ruled the charges filed after the murder trial are not the same acts he stood trial for, and therefore don't amount to double jeopardy. Fonseca, through his attorney, Morgan Scroggins, appealed Morris' ruling to the Appellate Court.
The appellate judges stated in their written decision Morris ruled correctly when he refused to dismiss the 2008 charges.
"In addition, while we do not necessarily condone the actions of the prosecutor in this case, we do not believe that the defendant has been prejudiced with respect to the current charges," the appellate panel wrote.
Two days before Miller's death on June 6, 2007, Fonseca gave a video-recorded interview to police in which he admitted driving the vehicle the night Miller was injured. He stated both were intoxicated when the incident took place. Fonseca said Miller, who was "messing around," fell out of the window of their vehicle in Carrier Mills while they were on their way to buy cocaine. He earlier lied to Carrier Mills Police Officer Steve Sloan May 28, 2007 at Harrisburg Medical Center when he brought Miller to the emergency room, saying he had not been driving when Miller was injured, according to the appellate ruling.
After the video interview, Fonseca was charged with driving on a revoked license, obstruction of justice, DUI, leaving the scene of an accident, failure to report an accident and driving on a revoked license, but those charges were dropped when the murder charges were filed June 13, 2007. New charges of aggravated DUI, obstructing justice and driving on a revoked license were filed after Fonseca's acquittal.
Nelson had argued the charges currently pending are not based on the same act as the murder charges, which involved an allegation that Fonseca struck Miller in the head and cause her death. Scroggins, on behalf of Fonseca, had argued for a wider definition of double jeopardy.
A preliminary hearing was held in the new cases, in which Nelson presented court transcripts from the murder trial showing Fonseca testified to being drunk, driving while his license was revoked and concocting a story to tell Sloan about the incident that ended in Miller's death six days later. Sloan came to Harrisburg Medical Center after the May 28, 2007 incident and Fonseca told him Caleb Miller, Ashleigh's brother, drove him to Carrier Mills where they found Ashleigh injured and in need of medical attention. Fonseca later told police he was driving the vehicle and Ashleigh Miller fell out or jumped out in Carrier Mills.