A 23-year-old man was convicted Monday of three counts of second-degree murder for a fatal collision in Orange four years ago.
In his first trial last year, Azarie Dupree Fuller was convicted in October of a count of leading police on a chase causing death, two counts of child abuse and endangerment, two counts of reckless driving causing injury to a passenger, all felonies.
Fuller was also convicted of a misdemeanor count of driving without a driver’s license and an infraction for speeding more than 100 mph and faces sentencing enhancements for inflicting great bodily injury.
However, jurors in October deadlocked 8-4 for guilt on the murder charges. Fuller is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 18 and faces 15 years to life in prison for each murder conviction on top of all the other crimes.
Fuller was convicted of killing 26-year-old Gustavo Castro of Garden Grove, 14-year-old Dayanara Rebolledo of Tustin and 17-year-old Dominic McGinley of Anaheim in the July 9, 2022, crash.
The pursuit began about 2:47 a.m. July 9, 2022, at Glassell Street and Lincoln Avenue when an officer heard the screeching of brakes behind him as Fuller “pulled up on him like `The Dukes of Hazzard,”’ and then made a U-turn, Deputy District Attorney Mallory Miller said in last year’s trial.
Fuller and six others were “crammed” into a Nissan Altima, likely without seatbelts, Miller said.
Officer Christian Gray struggled to keep up with the Altima in a pursuit that lasted about 30 seconds before the car slammed into a railroad crossing on Glassell Street near Taft Avenue, Miller said.
A 14-year-old girl in the car suffered major pelvic and leg injuries, while a 14-year-old boy sustained brain damage and required surgery to relieve swelling, Miller said. One victim was “almost entirely decapitated,” she told jurors.
In a trial brief for the retrial, prosecutors alleged Fuller “intentionally drove aggressively near a marked patrol vehicle to initiate a police chase.”
Fuller, who was driving his brother’s Nissan Altima, reached speeds exceeding 100 mph and turned off his headlights while ignoring the pleading of his passengers to stop, prosecutors said.
Fuller lost control as the car slammed into a railroad crossing arm and caught fire, prosecutors said.
Miller said the night began with the group traveling in a family-owned pickup truck to a street takeover in Los Angeles, where some were “huffing” nitrous oxide — which is known as “laughing gas” and is a sedative that is often abused as an intoxicant — from balloons.
When they returned the damaged truck to the family’s home in Garden Grove, the group stayed together and hopped into the Altima, Miller said.
Miller showed jurors dash-cam and body-worn video of the pursuit and crash. The officer can be seen approaching Sean Victoriano staggering from the fiery car “like a zombie,” Miller said.
The force of the collision hurled some of the victims from the fully engulfed car, she said.
Fuller also turned off the car’s headlights to make it harder for the officer to pursue him, Miller said.
Fuller’s attorney in the first trial, Allison Chan of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, said the collision was a case of “adolescent trauma leading to teenage tragedy.”
The collision was “the result of impulsive, rash, immature choices made by a group of teenagers,” Chan said.
She pointed out Fuller was not accused of driving under the influence and there was no evidence of him having nitrous oxide or alcohol in his system.
Fuller endured a “cycle of homelessness” growing up with a mother who would periodically drop him off with relatives while also squatting in abandoned homes as they “scrounged for food” at times, Chan said.
A psychiatric expert testified how Fuller had to attend multiple schools through the years and suffered emotional abuse, poverty and inconsistent parenting as a child, Chan said. Tests show he has the age equivalent of a 7 to 9 year old, Chan said.
Brain development can be affected by childhood trauma, Chan said.