http://www.dailybreeze.com/latestnews/ci_15366464
A Garden Grove man was found guilty Wednesday of second-degree murder for a drug- and alcohol-fueled crash that killed a woman bicycling alongside her teenage son in Seal Beach.
An Orange County Superior Court jury took just over a day of deliberations to convict 45-year-old Alex David Trujillo of the murder charge stemming from the Oct. 12, 2008, Orange County DUI collision that killed 46-year-old Catherine Busse.
Trujillo, who slumped in his chair and teared up as the verdict was read, faces 15 years to life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 20.
Judge James Marion earlier rejected the Orange County Criminal defense attorney,s motion to let the jury consider a lesser charge of vehicular manslaughter.
Trujillo was charged with second-degree murder in part because he had a 2002 DUI conviction and had been warned about the dangers of drinking and driving and the risk of facing murder charges during court-mandated nine months of alcohol-awareness classes.
"The defendant presented a significant danger to society because he was accustomed to operating a motor vehicle with multiple drugs and large quantities of alcohol in his system," Deputy District Attorney Susan Price said after the verdict was read.
"People cannot self-medicate and drink alcohol and get on the road," she said. "It's not fair to the rest of the people who are trying to make it from location to location without being hit by an impaired driver who should know better."
"Do I believe that Alex Trujillo should not have accountability for this horrific traffic collision and the death of Catherine Busse? No," Cohn said. "However, Alex Trujillo is not guilty of implied malice murder. He is guilty of one of several lesser-related crimes involving vehicular manslaughter, but not murder."
Price, though, successfully argued that Trujillo showed a "conscious disregard for life" -- the legal standard for second-degree murder -- when he ran over Busse in his pickup truck while legally drunk and with painkillers and other prescription medicine in his system.
Trujillo had been hurt on the job as a driver for the Long Beach Unified School District and was prescribed the painkillers he had in his system the day of the crash, Cohn said. He has been a driver for the school district for more than 12 years, his attorney said.
Blood tests after the fatal crash showed Trujillo had the painkillers Oxycodone and Vicodin and the anti-anxiety medicine Xanax in his system. A defense expert who testified at the trial said the muscle relaxant Soma was later detected in the defendant's system, Price said.
The Garden Grove resident had been drinking the night before at a wedding in Big Bear, according to trial testimony. He stayed overnight with his wife at a hotel near the reception and his wife drove them home.
Within a few hours of their return, Trujillo went out to pick up a few items for his grandmother at Bed Bath & Beyond, Cohn said. He was en route home when his pickup truck jumped a curb and struck Busse on Lampson Avenue near Seal Beach Boulevard.
The Seal Beach resident was bike riding alongside her 14-year-old son, who escaped with minor injuries.
The defendant's blood-alcohol level was measured at .09 percent -- above the legal limit of .08 -- about 90 minutes after the crash, Price said.
Trujillo tearfully testified last week that he didn't feel the effects of alcohol the afternoon of the crash.
Price argued that if Trujillo was telling the truth on the stand -- that he stopped drinking at 1:30 that morning -- then his blood-alcohol content at the wedding reception would have to have climbed as high as .30 or .40, a level toxic enough to kill most people. It was more likely that he drank again right before the crash, the prosecutor said.
Trujillo was given a commonly prescribed medicine for alcohol withdrawal while he was in the hospital after the Orange County DUI crash, and he lied to paramedics and nurses when he was first brought into the ER, saying he had no other prescriptions, the prosecutor said.
The defendant chewed on the tobacco end of a cigarette following the crash, apparently to mask the odor of alcohol on his breath, Price said.
When Trujillo was arrested for drinking and driving on Feb. 23, 2002, his blood-alcohol level was measured at .25 -- more than three times the legal limit, Price said.
Cohn countered by pointing to testimony from Trujillo's wife, who said her husband did not keep alcohol in the house after the DUI conviction and that she did not see him drinking after they got home from the wedding reception.
As for what his client said at the hospital, Cohn argued that Trujillo was disoriented, in shock and in pain from a broken ankle, ribs and collarbone.
Cohn argued the prosecution failed to show how much of the prescription drugs were in his client's system or that they impaired his driving. Witnesses testified that he was not driving erratically and successfully made a couple of left-hand turns before failing to follow a curve in the road and striking the bicyclist, Cohn said.
The defense attorney predicted the issue of whether the jury should have been allowed to consider lesser charges would be taken up on appeal.
This is a heavy case for someone who has been previously reminded by the court about the dangers of driving under the influence. The things taught in that class should also be taught in driving classes, or by those who are teaching someone how to drive. This doesn't totally eliminate the chances of accidents but this will definitely make things better.
Posted by: Guy Chambliss | 09/16/2011 at 08:13 AM
I'd actually love to review these boxes on my shopping/lifestyle blog. i wonder if they'd send me a sample box to talk about?
Posted by: bieber supra | 11/19/2011 at 01:34 PM