People v. Pettit

While driving impaired, Jack Pettit (defendant) caused a vehicle accident in which a child died. Pettit was charged with negligent homicide. After negotiations, the negligent-homicide charge was dropped, and Pettit pleaded guilty to an impaired-driving charge instead. At Pettit’s sentencing hearing, the judge reviewed a presentence report confirming that Pettit had caused the accident. The judge then gave Pettit the option of being sentenced to two years of probation instead of confinement. However, the judge ordered Pettit to pay restitution as a condition of accepting probation. Initially, the restitution requirement included paying Pettit’s victims for the vehicle repairs, the child’s funeral expenses, and the child’s headstone. Pettit’s attorney did not object to the accuracy or reasonableness of the vehicle-repair or funeral-expense amounts, but he objected that the defense was hearing about the headstone expense for the first time at the hearing. The judge struck the headstone expense, and the final order conditioned Pettit’s probation on his payment of the vehicle-repair and funeral expenses to his victims as restitution. On appeal, Pettit argued that he had been denied due process because he had not been given an opportunity to present evidence or defenses before being ordered to pay what were essentially civil damages to his victims.