Drunk Driver Is Found Guilty of Manslaughter in Teen-Ager’s Death

A Sherman Oaks man whose car plowed into a disabled vehicle on the shoulder of the Ventura Freeway, killing a teen-ager as her mother watched in horror, was convicted Wednesday of vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving.

Rodney Paul Brogna, a carpenter, had been charged with second-degree murder in the Feb. 24, 1986, crash. But jurors said after the verdict in Van Nuys Superior Court that his drunkenness caused them to conclude that he did not have control of his reasoning powers, a necessary element of murder.

“Some jurors interpreted the instructions to mean that the drunker you are, the more innocent you are,” said juror Herb Nyberg of Canyon Country, who criticized the law.

Prosecutors, too, frequently complain that the legal definition of murder, which includes a conscious disregard for safety, makes motorists less culpable as they grow more intoxicated.

The victim, 17-year-old Alexandra Allison Vincent, had car trouble and pulled to the right shoulder of the eastbound Ventura Freeway, just east of the San Diego Freeway. She telephoned her mother, actress Sandra Loomis, who summoned a tow truck and arrived to assist.

While Loomis walked to the tow truck, Vincent went toward her mother’s car to retrieve an automobile-club card. Brogna’s Chevrolet Blazer hit her vehicle, sending Vincent over the guard rail.

The crash occurred shortly after midnight. A blood-alcohol sample taken from Brogna, 33, more than two hours afterward registered 0.17%, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ed Consiglio said. Under state law, a motorist is presumed drunk at 0.10% or above.

Brogna’s attorney asserted that his client was not driving carelessly but had pulled to the right of the freeway to exit at an off-ramp.

In arguing to the jury that Brogna knew his actions were reckless, Consiglio cited the defendant’s two previous convictions for misdemeanor drunk-driving offenses and noted that, because of those convictions, he had twice attended schools for substance abusers.

Mother Heads Chapter of MADD

Earlier this month, Loomis, who recently appeared on the “Falcon Crest” television series, and her husband, Rod Loomis of North Hollywood, were named co-presidents of the Los Angeles County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). (Vincent’s father, E. Duke Vincent, is a television producer whose credits include the series “Dynasty.”)

Loomis and her husband expressed disappointment in the jury’s rejection of the murder charge but said the legal theory in charging drunk drivers with murder is relatively new.

MADD officials, who chart drunk-driving cases, said they know of only four second-degree murder convictions in the county in alcohol-related crashes and about 10 statewide since prosecutors began filing the charge five years ago.

‘We Were Sitting Ducks’

“He might as well have put a gun to her head and shot her,” Sandra Loomis said. “We were sitting ducks.”

Referring to Brogna’s record, Loomis said, “To me, he’s just thumbing his nose at society.”

Brogna could receive up to eight years in prison when he is sentenced July 2 by Judge Alan B. Haber. The judge rejected a defense motion to allow Brogna to remain free on $30,000 bail and ordered him jailed pending sentencing.

“He has shown a propensity to get behind the wheel when he shouldn’t,” Haber said. “I need to sleep at night.”