Anaheim Driver Convicted of Murder in Death of Bicyclist

An Anaheim man whose reckless driving twice before led to police pursuits was found guilty of second-degree murder Thursday in the death of a bicyclist he hit while fleeing from police at speeds of more than 100 m.p.h.

Patrick E. Connolly, 25, a perfume salesman who had been free on $50,000 bond during his trial, was arrested after a tearful goodby hug with his mother.

Several among the jury of 11 women and one man were either crying or fought back tears after the verdict was read.

“I am glad it was you and not me in that jury room, because it is such an emotional case,” Superior Court Judge James R. Ross told the jurors after thanking them.

Connolly had been cited for speeding the night of April 7, 1987. But 30 minutes later, he led police on a chase through central county streets after he fatally struck 19-year-old bicyclist Cesilio Ortega Roman of Anaheim, who was heading home from work at a Sizzler restaurant on Harbor Boulevard in Garden Grove.

Connolly drove off with his lights off and ran several red lights, leading officers from the Westminster and Garden Grove police departments on a 5-mile chase at speeds exceeding 100 m.p.h., according to witnesses.

Connolly’s blood-alcohol level at the time was measured at .11--slightly above the .10 necessary to be considered legally drunk in California.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeoffrey L. Robinson said he sought a murder conviction instead of vehicular manslaughter because Connolly’s conduct was so reckless.

“He’s not really a bad guy,” Robinson told the jurors later. “But there is a side to him where he just doesn’t care. . . . He wants his way.”

Previously, Connolly had been cited twice for reckless driving in separate incidents involving police pursuits. In 1981 and 1982, court records show, he was chased by police in Placentia at speeds above 80 m.p.h.

Connolly is scheduled to be sentenced July 1. Unless the judge reduces the jury’s verdict, Connolly faces an automatic sentence of 15 years to life in prison.

His attorney, Deputy Public Defender Jeff Lund, had argued for a lesser verdict of vehicular manslaughter, which would have permitted the judge to give him a sentence ranging from probation to six years in prison.

Lund argued to jurors that Connolly had not been conscious of what he was doing, but jurors said later there were too many instances in which Connolly could have stopped the pursuit. Also, they were influenced by his past driving record.

“We felt he knew what the consequences could be, because he’d been in this situation before,” said Carole Ryan of Irvine, the jury foreman.

The jurors’ vote was 9 to 3 until noon Thursday, when it became 11 to 1. The one woman who held out the longest against a murder verdict left the courtroom in tears and told Lund afterward: “I did what I could, I really did.”

Lund thanked her and told the rest of the jury in the courtroom hallway: “I’m not going to second-guess your decision. You were in there a long time and obviously gave this a lot of thought.”

Ryan, the foreman, said she believed the holdout juror “just wasn’t understanding the law and how it applied to this case.”

Connolly did not testify on his own behalf.

This had been one of three police pursuit cases pending in county courts in which fleeing motorists were charged with murder in the deaths of people hit by their cars. A second case is now being tried, and the third is in pretrial motions.

Until five years ago, all the cases would have been treated as vehicular manslaughter cases. But a state Supreme Court ruling on the issue led prosecutors to seek murder charges in those vehicular death cases where they believed the defendant was grossly negligent.