Advertisement

Listen to the Dead, Prosecutor in Weller Trial Instructs Jurors

Share
Times Staff Writer

Jurors were told to listen to the dead as they began deliberations Friday in the case of George Weller, on trial for 10 counts of manslaughter after he drove his car through an open-air market three years ago.

“Dead bodies do speak,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Ann Ambrose said in her closing arguments. “They do tell you something. They tell you where they were. They tell you of their injuries.”

Defense attorney Mark Overland stamped his foot in Los Angeles Superior Court, creating three dull thuds as he demonstrated how Weller tried desperately to stop his 1992 Buick as it plowed through the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market on July 16, 2003.

Advertisement

According to Overland, Weller mistook the gas pedal for the brake, then panicked and could not control the car.

The accident also injured 68 pedestrians.

“Ten horrifying, terrible, shocking, gruesome seconds. That’s about the same time that it took me to say those words,” Overland told jurors as he replayed an animation re-creating what Weller saw from behind the windshield.

Weller, now 89, will not attend the reading of the verdict, Overland said Friday. Confined to a wheelchair, he was briefly in court three weeks ago as the trial began, but not since. Overland said Weller is suffering “increasing stress” and his condition is deteriorating.

Weller faces 10 counts of manslaughter with gross negligence -- which usually is charged in cases of drunk driving, drag racing and fleeing police.

“That’s not what you have here,” Overland said. “Mr. Weller reacted exactly the way a normal driver would have under the same circumstances.”

“This is not a case about remorse,” Ambrose retorted. “This is a case about responsibility. Mr. Weller has not yet taken responsibility.”

Advertisement

john.spano@latimes.com

Advertisement