Murder Suspect ‘Took On’ Police, Prosecutor Says

A prosecutor told a judge Thursday that bail should not be reduced for Danny David Ornelas because the 19-year-old driver had “doubled his fists and taken on the police officer” who arrested him after a Balboa Peninsula woman was run down and killed last week near her home.

Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Bruce Patterson argued that Ornelas’ bail should not be reduced from $250,000 because he left the car and ran from the crash scene “while someone (was) dying on the ground.”

But Ralph Bencangey, who is representing the Huntington Park man, countered that Ornelas had been injured himself in the “horribly traumatic” crash that killed 37-year-old Debbie Killelea and had been “wandering around aimlessly” on the nearby beach. Bencangey also said Ornelas made “no serious attempt to fight the officer.”

The exchange came during Ornelas’ formal arraignment on murder charges Thursday afternoon before Harbor Municipal Court Judge Glenn A. Mahler, who denied the request for bail reduction.

Ornelas’ mother, father and other relatives attended the arraignment and cried openly when he was brought into the courtroom shackled and wearing an Orange County Jail-issue gold jumpsuit. On the other side of the courtroom were more than a dozen relatives and friends of Killelea, who was buried Tuesday.

Although they never spoke Thursday, the lives of both families collided tragically a week ago in Newport Beach.

Walking in the alley behind her home on East Ocean Boulevard with her two sons, Killelea saw a car speeding toward them, police and witnesses said. She tried to motion the driver to slow down as she pushed her two sons to safety. Witnesses told police that the car appeared to turn toward her intentionally and that the passenger in the 1984 Nissan 200SX appeared to be holding a video camera.

Killelea, who had been trying, along with her neighbors, to get speed bumps installed in the area, was struck by the car, momentarily pinned to a brick wall and then thrown 50 feet. Her sons escaped injury. She died that night during surgery.

The passenger, a 17-year-old youth whom police have refused to identify because he is a juvenile, was not arrested. He remained near the accident site, but the driver bolted from the wreckage. Half an hour later, Ornelas was arrested by officers who were scouring the neighborhood.

The dark-haired Catholic high school graduate was treated for a cut on his chin and scrapes. At the time of his arrest, he had a blood alcohol level of 0.18, nearly double the legal limit, police said.

A video camera was found in the car. Authorities said the film included footage of the collision.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard King, who will prosecute Ornelas, said Thursday that his office sought murder charges against Ornelas because witnesses’ statements and the videotape indicate that he intentionally struck Killelea.

“It is our opinion that the driver . . . drove the car towards the decedent,” King added.

Ornelas, a freshman film and photography major who would not divulge the name of the Los Angeles County college he attends, denied trying to hit Killelea, saying it was an accident.

But he admitted during a jailhouse interview Wednesday night that he was drunk at the time of the crash and that he and two friends had been drinking strong rum and beer beforehand.

In arguing for Ornelas’ bail to be reduced, his attorney said Ornelas has lived most of his life in the Los Angeles-Orange County area and has never been arrested or had any previous drinking mishaps. He acknowledged that Ornelas failed to appear last year in court on a traffic violation.

Ornelas was returned to County Jail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled in Mahler’s courtroom at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 12.

Bencangey said he did not know what attempts Ornelas’ family may make to raise the bail money, but he said “it’s more than they can afford.”

Ornelas’ relatives declined to discuss the case.