A 43-year-old appliance thief, who allowed a stolen stove to topple off his truck on an Anaheim freeway, triggering a collision that led to the death of an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, had his second-degree murder conviction reduced to involuntary manslaughter in an appellate court ruling handed down Tuesday.
Cole Wilkins, 43, was sentenced in October 2017 to 16 years to life in prison. Because he has credit for about 14 years in custody he is likely to be released from prison soon because the maximum punishment for involuntary manslaughter is four years, his attorney Sara Ross said.
A three-justice panel of the state’s 4th District Court of Appeal ordered a new sentencing, but Wilkins will have to wait for the appellate court to finalize the ruling. It is unclear if prosecutors will seek an appeal.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing the ruling, said Kimberly Edds, a public information officer with the District Attorney’s Office.
Associate Justice Eileen C. Moore of the 4th District Court of Appeal wrote the ruling with Associate Justices Richard F. Fybel and Raymond J. Ikola concurring.
“We’re very happy with the outcome obviously,” Ross said. “I think it’s the right result.”
The justices ruled that the jury got the verdict wrong when it convicted Wilkins of second-degree murder “under an implied malice theory.”
The justices “find that there was insufficient evidence to sustain the conviction. We will therefore exercise our discretion and reduce Wilkins’ second-degree murder conviction to involuntary manslaughter.”
Second-degree murder carries a 15-years-to-life sentence, but former Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals, who is now on the same appellate court division as Moore, Fybel and Ikola, tacked on another year because Wilkins had a prior conviction for failing to register as a sex offender. Wilkins was convicted as a juvenile of rape.
Wilkins was originally charged and convicted of first-degree murder, and was sentenced in July 2008 to 26 years to life in prison. His conviction and sentence were later overturned by the state Supreme Court, and Goethals ruled in 2017 that prosecutors could only pursue second-degree murder due to misconduct in the case and could not tell jurors the victim was an off-duty sheriff’s deputy, unlike Wilkins’ previous trial.
Wilkins argued in the most recent appeal that Goethals erred by denying his pretrial efforts to recuse the entire Orange County District Attorney’s Office and to dismiss the charges due to outrageous governmental misconduct.
The appellate justices disagreed with Wilkins on the outrageous governmental misconduct remedies, but agreed with the defendant that there was not enough evidence to prove second-degree murder.
Wilkins alleged outrageous governmental misconduct because he said California Highway Patrol investigators failed to disclose to defense attorneys there was a dispute about the cause of the crash and that one report was destroyed.
Ross argued that jurors should have been allowed to consider involuntary manslaughter, and before sentencing Goethals rejected a motion for a new trial based on defense arguments that the defendant’s crimes did not meet the legal standard for an implied malice killing and that he should have been convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
Wilkins stole several appliances from an under-construction Menifee home on July 7, 2006, and was driving away with them about 5 a.m. when a stove fell onto the Riverside (91) Freeway, leading to the crash that killed Deputy David Piquette.
Wilkins failed to tie down the appliances, which filled the Ford F250 truck’s cab, and left the tailgate down, Moore wrote.
“After the truck drove through a bumpy and curved portion of the freeway, a large stove fell from the back of the truck,” Moore wrote. “Within the next five or so minutes, several people called 911 and three collisions occurred.”
One motorist, Dan Lay, who saw the stove tumble off the truck, swerved out of the way and followed Wilkins, flashing his lights and honking his horn to get Wilkins’ attention, Moore wrote.
“After about two miles, Wilkins slowed down and began to pull over, but then he accelerated again,” Moore wrote.
Wilkins eventually drove off the freeway and at the top of the off-ramp, Lay hollered to Wilkins that he needed to pull over.
That prompted Wilkins to say, “I will pull over, but I am going to (expletive) you up,’ ” Moore wrote.
When Wilkins stopped in a parking lot, Lay told him about the stove, Moore wrote.
Wilkins responded, “Oh my God. That was an (expletive) thousand-dollar stove,” according to Moore.