Jurors deadlocked Friday on a second-degree murder charge against two men involved in the death of an 81-year-old woman in a 2013 street racing crash in Rancho Mirage, but convicted them of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and other counts.
“These were two grown men behaving like children,” Deputy District Attorney Daniel M. Fox told jurors. “They didn’t want to hurt anyone. But that doesn’t mean they’re not murderers.”
Scott Daniel Bahls, 31, of Palm Springs, and Wade Klinton Wheeler, 34, of Rancho Mirage, were both also convicted of unlawfully engaging in a speed contest on a highway and reckless driving causing injury, while Bahls was additionally found guilty of hit-and-run.
The verdicts were read a day after the panel, after nearly four days behind closed doors, told the judge they were hopelessly deadlocked on the murder and reckless driving counts, but agreed to deliberate further in hopes of breaking the impasse.
The panel deadlocked 10-2 in favor of convicting both men of the murder charge in a Riverside County court.
The June 18, 2013, crash killed Barbara Schmitz and seriously injured her husband, Gerald, came at the end of a four-mile street race that began on Date Palm Drive in Cathedral City, prosecutors said.
Deputy District Attorney Daniel M. Fox told jurors that the defendants were driving in excess of 70 mph along Highway 111 before Wheeler’s BMW crashed into the side of the victims’ Ford Focus as Gerald Schmitz was turning left onto the highway from Dunes View Road. The car launched into the air and rolled several times before coming to rest at a Union 76 gas station near the intersection.
Barbara Schmitz died at Eisenhower Medical Center about two hours after the crash. Her husband suffered numerous injuries, including a brain hemorrhage, broken ribs and vertebra, ankle, tibia, fibula and pelvis fractures. Wheeler suffered a broken right leg.
In his closing argument, Fox said the defendants were cognizant of the risk they were taking — an element necessary to prove implied malice needed for a second-degree murder conviction.
Bahls’ attorney, Stephanie Arrache, told jurors there was no evidence the men were involved in a street race. Arrache and Wheeler’s attorney, Rodney Soda, said the evidence only showed that Gerald Schmitz was at fault and had more than enough time to gauge oncoming traffic before turning, but didn’t.
“He could have seen oncoming traffic had he been paying attention,” Arrache said.
Fox, however, said Schmitz properly gauged the distance between him and the defendants’ cars, but could not have anticipated the speed at which they were approaching, as he alleged they were driving in excess of 70 mph in a 45 mph zone.
Schmitz testified he had no memory of what occurred leading up to and immediately following the crash.
According to a court document, witnesses reported seeing both drivers swerving through traffic and “communicating to each other through their windows. Both vehicles were seen either side by side or within a car length apart.”
“These were two grown men behaving like children,” Fox said. “They didn’t want to hurt anyone. But that doesn’t mean they’re not murderers.”
— City News Service