Driver of Boat Given 3 Years for 5 Deaths : Virl Earles’ Record of Other Arrests in Past Decade Cited

The man who crashed a powerboat into a concrete buoy in Anaheim Bay two years ago, killing five passengers, was sentenced Friday to three years in state prison by a Superior Court judge who admonished him for his long list of driving violations and alcohol-related arrests.

Virl H. Earles, 31, fighting back tears, bowed his head as Orange County Superior Court Judge Jean H. Rheinheimer said, “I agree with the mother of one of the victims, who said that Virl Earles was an accident waiting to happen.”

The judge recited Earles’ record of arrests since 1976: two for public drunkenness, three for reckless driving, four for speeding, one for driving under the influence and two for minor burglaries 10 years ago, plus several probation violations.

“Mr. Earles’ record shows a decade of conscious disregard for the safety of others,” the judge said.

Earles had a high blood-alcohol content and was driving at least five times the 5 m.p.h. speed limit at the time of the crash on Oct. 28, 1984.

While the judge explained her decision, family members sat in the back of the courtroom timing contractions for Earles’ wife, Lori, who went into labor with her first child shortly before the hearing. The delivery was overdue.

Under Rheinheimer’s order, Earles does not have to begin serving the sentence until Dec. 12, which gives him time to file an appeal and allows him to take his wife to the hospital for the delivery of the baby.

Earles, a Seal Beach native who recently moved to Westminster, was convicted three months ago at a second trial of five counts of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of five young people aboard the boat he was driving. The first trial ended in a hung jury, deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of acquittal.

The night of the crash, Earles and eight others met at the Red Onion at Peter’s Landing in Huntington Harbour and went by boat from there to Long Beach about 2 a.m. to view the Queen Mary.

On the return trip, Earles entered the bay driving between 25 and 30 m.p.h. and misjudged the location of the safe boating channel, according to trial testimony. All nine aboard were thrown from the boat when it crashed into an 11-foot-wide mooring buoy.

Killed were Anthony Sutton, 27, Ronald Myers, 22, and John Bakos, 22, all of Seal Beach; Kathy Weaver, 24, of Laguna Beach, and Patricia Hulings, 20, of Downey.

The others were injured. Earles’ injuries were the most serious. He underwent a colostomy and faces further surgery.

Earles’ attorney, Gary M. Pohlson, argued that the incident was a tragic accident, but nothing more. Earles testified that a missing jetty light threw him off course.

However, Deputy Dist. Atty. John D. Conley introduced evidence that Earles knew the speed limit inside the bay, had spent most of his life around boats and should have known the danger of driving that fast on a dark night in an overloaded, six-seat boat.

Earles could have received a maximum sentence of eight years. Pohlson asked for probation for Earles, and prosecutor Conley asked for a five-year sentence, one year for each victim.

But Conley noted later that seldom has any case shown “such a wide spectrum of views” from people involved.

The probation report showed that the mother of one of the passengers killed strongly sided with Earles, two strongly sided against him and two questioned whether it would accomplish anything to send him to prison.

Marie Katz, mother of Ronald Myers, told a probation officer that, just a week before the accident, Earles had failed to show up when scheduled to do some work for her. He explained that he had gotten drunk. When she warned him he should stop drinking, he reportedly told her, “I know it, but it’s hard.”

“Virl Earles was an accident waiting to happen,” Katz told the probation officer. “When you drink all the time, it’s bound to happen.”

But Marlene Sutton, mother of Anthony Sutton, referred to Earles as a “poor, innocent kid” who has suffered enough.

The other three survivors of the crash said Earles was not to blame.

The jurors who convicted Earles at his second trial asked the judge at the time for leniency for him. A juror from his first trial wrote to the judge, asking that he not be sent to prison.

But Cyrus Allen, foreman of the second jury who had said he favored probation for Earles, showed up to observe Friday’s sentencing, saying he trusted the judge to make the right decision.

“We didn’t have access to all the information the judge had,” Allen said.

Actually, if Conley had gotten his way, the jurors would have known a great deal more about Earles’ drinking than they did.

After the crash, Earles was given a blood-alcohol test that registered slightly above .10%. That’s the minimum level at which an automobile driver is presumed to be under the influence of alcohol in California. While that minimum does not apply to boaters, Conley planned to use it as evidence that Earles should have known better than to drive a boat at high speeds while in that condition.

But the blood-alcohol evidence was thrown out by a Municipal Court judge after police officials discovered that they had failed to arrest him before taking the blood sample. Earles was hospitalized at the time and in no condition to give permission. Such tests can be taken without someone’s permission only if he has been arrested.

This evidence was not considered by Rheinheimer at the sentencing, but the judge noted that most of Earles’ past difficulties with the law have been alcohol-related.

“He has been afforded plenty of opportunity to shape up, yet he never took advantage of it,” the judge said. “I know Mr. Earles is suffering. But based on his background, I feel I have no choice but to send him to state prison.”