Victim Reported Paralyzed : Charges Will Be Sought in Shooting on Freeway

Costa Mesa police said Monday that they will ask the Orange County district attorney’s office to file attempted murder charges against Albert Carroll Morgan, 32, a roofer suspected of shooting a 28-year-old motorist from Rolling Hills Estates in a weekend freeway altercation.

The victim, Paul Gary Nussbaum, remained in “very critical condition” Monday, paralyzed with a bullet lodged in his spine. Morgan allegedly shot Nussbaum as they jockeyed for the right of way in converging freeway traffic near the Orange County Fairgrounds, authorities said.

Nussbaum, the third freeway shooting victim in the Southland this summer, remained in the intensive care unit of Fountain Valley Regional Hospital.

The shooting occurred in stop-and-go traffic about 7:05 p.m. Saturday while Nussbaum was southbound in heavy traffic in the slow lane of the Costa Mesa Freeway where it merges with Newport Boulevard, Costa Mesa Police Lt. Rick Johnson said.

Morgan, who was driving a pickup truck, was attempting to leave the freeway at Fair Drive and had exchanged words with other motorists who were passing him on the shoulder to his right, Johnson said.

As Nussbaum’s car came alongside, police allege that Morgan leaned to the right in front of his wife, Lonnie Joy Morgan, and fired one shot from a .22-caliber pistol out the passenger’s window of the truck. The shot struck Nussbaum in the neck.

Nussbaum’s car went out of control and sideswiped three other autos before coming to a stop, police said, adding that Morgan drove off the freeway and entered the fairgrounds.

A Costa Mesa traffic officer saw Nussbaum’s car strike three others, Johnson said. When the officer rushed to the car, he saw the wounded driver. A witness to the shooting gave police a description of the truck.

Morgan and his wife were arrested without incident shortly afterward by an officer who followed the truck into the fairgrounds parking lot, Johnson said. They were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder charges.

The Morgans were the first persons arrested in connection with the recent freeway shootings, but Lonnie Joy Morgan was released from custody Sunday, police said. Her husband remained in custody with bail set at $250,000.

People who know both men said Monday that they were surprised to hear of the shooting.

“(I) wouldn’t imagine he’s (Nussbaum’s) the kind of driver to get involved in something like that,” said Dr. Peter Fischer, a member of the Jack Kramer Tennis Club in Rolling Hills Estates, where Nussbaum played tennis.

Archie Berry, who for about six years has lived across the street in Santa Ana from Morgan, also expressed surprise.

“They (Morgan and his wife) are pretty laid back,” said Berry, who described Morgan as a good neighbor who would “offer to help you with your car if you had problems with it.”

A woman at Morgan’s Santa Ana home refused to speak with a reporter Monday.

Orange County Municipal Court records show that in 1979, Morgan was charged with two counts of drunk driving and sentenced to probation. Details of the case were not available Monday.

In 1978, Morgan’s former wife, Cathlene Mary Morgan, filed a sworn declaration in their divorce case accusing Morgan of physically abusing her and their 4-year-old son. She also alleged in the court papers that Morgan “has been arrested for assault, disturbing the peace and drug- and alcohol-related offenses.”

Nussbaum’s family gathered at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital on Monday. His father, Wilbur Nussbaum, told a reporter that his son works with mentally handicapped children and had organized a tennis-instruction program in Sonoma in Northern California after graduating from California State University, Sonoma.

Nussbaum, who graduated in 1977 from Miraleste High School in Rancho Palos Verdes, recently earned a master’s degree in social work at the University of Southern California.

Friends said Monday that Nussbaum, who lives with his parents, may have been en route to a barbecue when the shooting occurred.

Last month, there were two freeway shootings in Los Angeles County. On June 21, an unidentified, tailgating motorist fatally shot Rick Lane Bynum, 24, of Orange on the Santa Ana Freeway in Santa Fe Springs.

The next day, on a freeway on-ramp in Alhambra, Giang Nan, 19, of Los Angeles was shot and wounded. The shots came from a vehicle full of angry motorists.

Times staff writers Lonn Johnston and Bob Schwartz contributed to this article.