Assault Conviction : Freeway Shooter Acquitted on Most Serious Charges

An unemployed Sylmar carpenter who shot at a car on the Golden State Freeway in July after a tailgating incident was acquitted Friday of attempted murder, but convicted of two lesser charges.

A jury deliberated for three days before finding Lewis L. Meeks guilty of one count each of assault with a deadly weapon and firing at an occupied vehicle.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge Howard J. Schwab set sentencing for March 11. Meeks could receive a maximum sentence of seven years, eight months in prison.

Meeks, 32, had been charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count each of assault with a deadly weapon and shooting at an occupied vehicle, which carried a maximum penalty of life in prison without possibility of parole.

The July 20 incident was the sixth of more than 30 freeway shootings reported in Southern California last summer. It was the third case this week in which people accused of freeway shootings have been acquitted of attempted-murder charges and found guilty of lesser offenses.

Dist. Atty. Ira K. Reiner, who pushed for life sentences for freeway shooters, called a press conference before Meeks’ arraignment last summer, saying he wanted the case to serve notice that freeway shooters would be punished with severe sentences.

“This sort of cowboy mentality doesn’t belong anywhere. God knows, it doesn’t belong on the freeway,” Reiner said.

Jury foreman Annette C. George, 31, an insurance claims adjuster, said nearly half the panel was “leaning toward second-degree murder” as late as Friday morning. But the jury later reached unanimous agreement that the evidence did not show that Meeks specifically intended to kill Carol Ann Fayne and Michael Fabian Smith when he fired at Fayne’s car. A deliberate intent to kill is required to prove attempted murder.

Tailgating Charge

Fayne and Smith, the passenger in Fayne’s sports car, testified that Meeks started tailgating them with his pickup truck as they returned from a movie at Universal City. Meeks then fired directly at Fayne without provocation, Smith said.

Fayne testified that one of the bullets punctured the back of her car. Meeks testified that he shot at Fayne’s car because Smith threw beer cans at his truck, yelled obscenities and ripped off the mirror on the driver’s side with a tire iron.

Meeks said he aimed at the car’s tire and sought only to scare the occupants into leaving him alone. After the shooting, Fayne and Smith chased Meeks’ truck at speeds of up to 100 m.p.h. to get the license plate number, which led to Meeks’ arrest July 21. Meeks said he carried a pistol because he had received death threats from his wife’s ex-husband, who belongs to a motorcycle gang.

Juror Stephanie Rabinowitz, 48, said the panel found discrepancies in the testimony of both sides.

Meeks remains in County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.

In another case, an Orange County roofer was convicted Thursday of the lesser charge of attempted voluntary manslaughter in a freeway shooting incident in Costa Mesa last summer that left the victim paralyzed from the neck down.

In a third case, a San Fernando jury Wednesday declined to find a Newhall man guilty of attempted murder in a roadway shooting Aug. 22 involving a California Highway Patrol officer. The man was convicted of possession of a firearm in a vehicle and possession of a concealed weapon.