State v. . Folger

*697 Coistnoe, J. The defendant was charged with a violation of a statute which reads as follows: “Any person who drives any vehicle upon a highway carelessly and heedlessly in a willful or wanton disregard of the rights or safety of others, or without due caution and circumspection and at a speed or in a manner so as to endanger or he likely to endanger any person or property, shall he guilty of reckless driving, and upon conviction shall he punished as provided in section 60 of this act.” Section 3, chapter 148, 'Public Laws of North Carolina, 1927; N. C. Code of 1935, section 2621 (45). Under this statute, a person is guilty of reckless driving (1) if he drives an automobile on a public highway in this State, carelessly and heedlessly, in a willful or wanton disregard of the rights or safety of others, or (2) if he drives an automobile on a public highway in this State without due caution and circumspection and at a speed or in a manner so as to endanger or be likely to endanger any person or property. At the trial of this action the court instructed the jury as follows: “If the State has satisfied you from all the evidence in this case that the defendant operated his automobile upon a public highway or street in the city of 'Winston-Salem without due caution and circumspection, or at a speed, or in a manner so as to endanger or be likely to endanger any person or property on the public street, then and in that event, if you so find beyond a reasonable doubt, from the evidence, it will be your duty to convict the defendant of reckless driving as charged in the warrant.” There is error in this instruction, for which the defendant is entitled to a new trial. The jury should have been instructed that if they were satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt, by the evidence, that the defendant operated his automobile on a public highway or street in the city of Winston-Salem, without due caution and circumspection and at a speed or in a manner so as to endanger or be likely to endanger any person or property on said public highway or street, then and in that event it would be their duty to convict the defendant of reckless driving, as charged in the warrant. Where the defendant in a criminal action is charged with a statutory crime, it is incumbent on the State to satisfy the jury beyond a reasonable doubt, by the evidence, of all the facts which constitute the crime as defined by the statute. The defendant is entitled to a new trial. It is so ordered. New trial.