Man Who Shot, Disabled Driver Convicted on Lesser of 2 Counts
A roofer was convicted Thursday of attempted voluntary manslaughter in a freeway shooting incident in Costa Mesa last summer that left the victim paralyzed from the neck down. However, jurors found Albert Carroll Morgan, 33, of Santa Ana innocent of the more serious charge of attempted murder.
Morgan’s attorney, Paul S. Meyer, was elated by the verdict and said that Morgan now faces a sentence of about 10 years instead of life.
It is the only Orange County prosecution to follow from a rash of freeway shootings in Southern California last summer.
Attempted voluntary manslaughter was the best that the defense had hoped for. That verdict follows the defense theory that the shooting was an impulse and that Morgan had not planned to kill the victim.
Morgan was arrested in the July 18, 1987, shooting of Paul Gary Nussbaum, 29, of Rolling Hills Estates. Witnesses said the victim had tried to cut around a lane of stalled traffic at the end of the Costa Mesa Freeway, near the Orange County Fairgrounds, by driving onto the right shoulder.
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