A 30-year-old man “test driving” his friend’s Cadillac with a “Corvette engine” while drunk ended up in a “Dukes of Hazzard”-style airborne crash into a Mission Viejo home, killing a slumbering resident, was convicted Monday of second-degree murder.
Jurors deliberated for about two hours before reaching a verdict against Kourosh Keshmiri of Mission Viejo. Keshmiri, who is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 10, faces 15 years to life in prison.
Keshmiri killed 60-year-old Kenneth Jackson on Dec. 29, 2013.
Jackson’s longtime friend, Mark Martinez, said after the verdict, “Nobody wins. I lost a great friend and brother.”
Martinez said Jackson, whom he knew for 23 years, helped him get accepted into an Orange County club of motorcycle enthusiasts.
“He was a nice guy,” Martinez said. “He helped a lot of people… It’s a great loss to a lot of us (motorcycle enthusiasts).”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker argued in the trial that Keshmiri was repeatedly warned about the dangers of drinking and driving and was so reckless the night he killed Jackson that the only just verdict is second-degree murder.
Keshmiri’s attorney, John Barnett, told jurors, “You’ve got to talk about the law — and it’s complicated — because of this artificial way of making a non-intentional act into an intentional act.”
At issue was part of the law that allows prosecutors to seek a murder charge against a drunk driver if the driver has been convicted of driving under the influence previously. Attorneys refer to it as “implied malice,” meaning there was no premeditation and deliberation before the deadly act, but the defendant was acting so recklessly he had to know someone could die.
When drunk drivers are convicted it is routine to warn them that if they get caught driving under the influence again they could face a charge of murder instead of manslaughter.
Barnett acknowledged, “Mr. Keshmiri has a prior” conviction for drunk driving, “and he was speeding, and he was drinking… it’s an emotional case and you should be justifiably upset, but you’re in a position of this all-or- nothing, murder or nothing.”
Barnett added, “You have to make that choice you want to find him guilty of something, but you also have your oath. I ask you to follow your oath and not convict him of something he’s not guilty of.”
Barnett also raised questions about a video of Keshmiri’s field sobriety test and whether it showed he was disabled. Barnett argued it was possible that Keshmiri was not intoxicated at the time of the crash because the alcohol had not metabolized into his system yet.
Walker argued that it would be unreasonable to cast aside all of the other evidence showing the defendant’s intoxication such as the testimony of a criminologist on the defendant’s blood-alcohol level based on blood tests hours after the crash.
“The defendant decided to speed, to floor it and because of that he lost control” of the vehicle, Walker said. “Did he intentionally drive when he knew he was consuming alcohol? Yes.”
Jackson went to bed to watch TV and was sleeping when Keshmiri crashed his friend’s 2005 Cadillac CTS-V into the victim’s bedroom.
Keshmiri’s evening started with a visit to Irvine with a friend to hang out at a hookah lounge, Walker said. His friend said in the three hours they were there he did not see him drinking, and the defendant was under court orders not to drink at that time because of prior drunk driving arrests and convictions, Walker said.
The two went to a restaurant to eat, but his friend said he still hadn’t seen the defendant drinking there, Walker said. When they got home to Mission Viejo, Keshmiri asked his friend if he could take his car out for a “test drive,” and because he did not appear to be drunk, his friend said OK, Walker added.
But as Keshmiri sped around the neighborhood, his friend asked him to stop and when he wouldn’t, “He closed his eyes and braced for impact,” Walker said.
The vehicle’s “data event recorder” indicated that the car, which has a “400 horsepower rocket” under the hood, was going 86 mph when Keshmiri tried but failed to make a wide turn downhill, Walker said. Skid marks in front of the house indicate the vehicle may have slowed to 58 mph, Walker said.
“But the defendant was still going so fast the embankment served as a ramp and he went airborne,” Walker said. “He flew `Dukes of Hazzard’-style into (the home’s) glass window.”
Experts calculated that his blood-alcohol content must have been about .19 or .20, more than twice the legal limit of .08 percent, Walker said. A blood draw nearly three hours after the collision showed his blood-alcohol level at .15, Walker said.
Keshmiri pleaded guilty Aug. 26, 2010, to driving drunk and was ordered to participate in a three-month program that included classes on the dangers of drinking and driving and hearing from a victim of a deadly DUI crash about how it affected her life, Walker said.
Keshmiri was arrested again June 6, 2013, for drunk driving and a judge ordered the accused to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings as a condition of staying out of custody before trial, Walker said.
–City News Service