The State - News from March 21, 1989

Rejecting a charge of second-degree murder, an Orange County Superior Court jury found Danny David Ornelas, 19, guilty of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in the Sept. 1 death of a Newport Beach woman, who was standing in an alley with her two children when she was struck by his speeding car. Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Goethals argued that a videotape shot by a passenger in the car proved that the Huntington Park man deliberately swerved the car to hit Debbie Killelea, 37. But defense attorney Ralph Bencangey of Beverly Hills contended that the tape proves that Ornelas tried to avoid the woman. If the jury had convicted Ornelas of second-degree murder, he could have been sentenced to up to life in prison. The manslaughter conviction carries a maximum penalty of 10 years, with eligibility for parole after five. Judge Luis A. Cardenas ordered Ornelas, who had been free on $100,000 bail, to jail pending sentencing May 2.