Despite pleas from his friends, a convicted DUI offender drove while intoxicated, nearly causing several accidents before slamming into and killing a California Highway Patrol officer writing a ticket on the shoulder of Interstate 15 in Lake Elsinore, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday.
“His friends warned him, implored him, begged him not to get behind the wheel of his car,” Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Carlos Managas said in his 90-minute closing statement in the trial of Michael Joseph Callahan at the Southwest Justice Center. “He made a decision to hold onto his keys. He drove into Steve Licon, killing him.”
Callahan, 53, of Winchester is charged with second-degree murder and a sentence-enhancing great bodily injury allegation for the April 6, 2019, death of Licon, a CHP sergeant from Perris who was nearing retirement after almost 30 years of service.
The prosecution and defense rested in the morning, and Managas made his closing argument in the afternoon. Because of the time consumed, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Freer decided to push the defense’s closing statement to Thursday morning.
Managas covered every detail of Callahan’s actions on the day of the deadly crash, recalling how the defendant wanted to celebrate before starting his weekend and invited co-workers from the Costco where he was a supervisor to a sports bar after they finished their night shift.
The prosecutor alleged Callahan consumed five 22-ounce beers and had at least three shots of tequila over a roughly five-hour span, becoming noticeably inebriated.
“It was clear beyond a shadow of a doubt this man was unsafe to drive a vehicle,” Managas alleged.
As he left the bar about 3 p.m., several co-workers urged Callahan, who had a 2004 misdemeanor DUI conviction from Orange County, to let someone else drive him home, according to the prosecutor. A “sober ride” service had even been contacted, and the driver pulled into the bar parking lot before Callahan started his car, but he rebuffed all attempts to get him out of his Toyota Corolla, Managas alleged.
“His friends warned him again and again and again not to go,” Managas told the jury. “But Michael Callahan rejected their offers. And what his friends understood would likely happen, predictably and tragically did.”
According to the prosecution, Callahan nearly sideswiped two cars and almost ran into a concrete divider on the Riverside (91) Freeway before turning southbound on Interstate 15 to return home. One motorist’s dashcam captured the defendant speeding “recklessly along grass and gravel and dirt,” using shoulder spaces barely large enough for his sedan to get around slower traffic in lanes, Managas said.
According to the CHP, Licon was working extra duty that afternoon because of heavy traffic associated with the “super bloom” of wildflowers in the valleys around Lake Elsinore, which drew large crowds and clogged roadways that March and April.
The veteran motorcycle officer, who volunteered for patrol instead of supervising junior personnel, had stopped the driver of a Chrysler sedan about a mile north of Nichols Road on southbound I-15 for speeding, Managas said.
After Licon obtained the driver’s information, he returned to his motorcycle to begin writing the citation.
“He doesn’t know that death is coming,” the prosecutor said. “Death’s name is Michael Callahan.”
Managas alleged that Licon had just finished writing the date and time in his ticket book when Callahan came barreling down the right shoulder at 70 to 80 mph, plowing into the lawman, his bike and the idling Chrysler.
The CHP sergeant was pronounced dead less than an hour later at Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar. The occupants of the Chrysler escaped with minor injuries, as did Callahan, who was taken into custody without incident.
“This didn’t need to happen, but for the defendant’s selfishness and stubbornness,” Managas said. “This is about the decisions he consciously made that entire day, April 6.”
The defendant, who is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta, is facing 15 years to life in state prison if convicted.