Drunk Driver Convicted in Wreck That Killed 3 : Deadlocked on Murder Charges, Jury Rules 1987 Crash Was Manslaughter

A drunk driver whose speeding car killed three people returning from a Christmas, 1987, shopping trip was convicted Friday of manslaughter, but a jury was unable to reach a verdict on second-degree murder charges filed against him.

A Pasadena Superior Court jury found Aram Barsumyan, 30, guilty of three counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and four other felony charges in connection with a Dec. 19, 1987, crash on Los Feliz Boulevard in Glendale.

Judge William Masterson declared a mistrial on the murder charges filed against Barsumyan after jurors reported that they were hopelessly deadlocked on the issue.

Jurors interviewed after the verdict was read said they were unable to agree on whether Barsumyan’s behavior constituted implied malice and reckless disregard for human life, which is required for a second-degree murder conviction. The jurors deliberated for four days and voted eight times on the charges but told the judge they remained split 7 to 5 in favor of conviction.

Head-On Crash

Police said Barsumyan’s car was speeding when he lost control of the auto while going over a drainage ditch, swerved into the westbound lane and crashed head-on into a car carrying a family on a shopping trip.

Killed in the crash were Francisco Cruz, 42, and his wife, Olga Yolanda Cruz, 31, of Azusa, and Olga’s sister Maria Hernandez, 33, of Los Angeles. The Cruz’s two children were injured in the crash.

The prosecutor in the case, Deputy Dist. Atty. Barbara Murphy, said she was disappointed that jurors had not found Barsumyan guilty of murder. Murphy told jurors in her closing arguments last week that Barsumyan knew what he was doing the day of the accident but “he just didn’t care.”

Earlier in the trial, Murphy told jurors that Barsumyan was convicted in 1982 of driving under the influence of alcohol. Judge Jack B. Tso had ruled in a pretrial hearing last month that the previous conviction--for which Barsumyan was sentenced to 36 months probation--could be introduced into evidence. Tso went on vacation Thursday afternoon after presiding over the trial, leaving Masterson to preside over the reading of the verdict.

Weighing Retrial

On Friday, Murphy said she had not decided whether to retry Barsumyan on the murder charges.

Barsumyan’s attorney, Theodore S. Flier, said after the verdict that his client was “clearly guilty of manslaughter” but said he was “no murderer.”

Flier told jurors in his closing arguments that Barsumyan was so impaired from drinking that he couldn’t be proved to have a conscious disregard for human life at the time of the accident.

Testifying in his own defense at the trial, Barsumyan drew gasps from some jurors when he said of drinking beer, “I know it’s like an alcoholic beverage but to me it’s like water.”

Expert witnesses and eyewitnesses testified that Barsumyan was driving at speeds of more than 80 m.p.h. when he lost control of his car on Los Feliz Boulevard between San Fernando Road and Central Avenue.

Photographic Evidence

During the trial, jurors were shown a photograph of the speedometer of Barsumyan’s car, which was locked at 80 m.p.h. after the crash, and pictures of the Cruz’s car, which was lying on the sidewalk on its side.

Speaking in heavily accented English, Barsumyan, a Soviet Armenian emigre living in Hollywood, testified last week that he has been a heavy drinker for years. But he said he had not drunk too much to drive on the day of the accident.

“I was careful. I was careful. I was careful,” Barsumyan said. “I never hurt anything in my life and . . . if I’d known something was gonna happen I would have stopped the car.”

The percentage of alcohol in Barsumyan’s blood was measured at 0.19%, police said. California law presumes a motorist intoxicated at 0.1%.

The jury also found Barsumyan guilty of two counts of felony driving under the influence causing bodily injury and two counts of felony driving with an excessive blood-alcohol level causing bodily injury.

Barsumyan is being held in Los Angeles County Jail on $500,000 bail. He faces a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison.