Maximum Term Given in Police Copter Deaths : Judge Hands Anaheim Man Who Led 45-Minute Air-Ground Car Chase a 45-Year to Life Sentence

A young Anaheim man involved in a high-speed car chase that resulted in the midair collision of two police helicopters and the deaths of three people aboard one of them was sentenced to the maximum 45 years to life in prison Friday.

“You’ve been an accident going somewhere to happen since you were 14 years old,” said Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald to the defendant, 22-year-old Vincent William Acosta.

Prosecutors had asked for only a 30-year sentence.

Acosta was convicted in May of three counts of second-degree murder for the March 10, 1987, deaths of two Costa Mesa police officers and a civilian who was with them in their helicopter.

Acosta, who was driving a stolen car, led police on a chase at speeds of up to 90 m.p.h. through half a dozen Orange County cities that night. Driving at times without lights and sometimes on the wrong side of the road, he was seen smiling as he eluded police.

About 12 minutes into the 45-minute chase, as Acosta crossed into Irvine, a Costa Mesa Police Department helicopter chasing him crashed into the rear of a Newport Beach Police helicopter. The first helicopter hit the ground near Bonita Canyon Road and burst into flames, killing all three aboard. The two officers in the Newport Beach copter were able to make an emergency landing in a nearby field and escaped serious injury.

It was the first midair collision of law enforcement helicopters in Southern California. And the case was the first in which a fleeing driver was found guilty of murder because of an air crash.

Killed in the Costa Mesa helicopter were Officers James D. Ketchum and John W. Libolt, both 39, and a civilian observer, Jeffrey A. Pollard, 29.

Libolt’s mother, Helen Libolt, said of Acosta’s family Friday: “They still have him. We don’t have our son. The worst thing that can possibly happen to you is to lose a child.”

Judge Fitzgerald had considerable leeway in sentencing Acosta. He could have given him only a 15-year sentence, allowing the three murder convictions to run concurrently. But Fitzgerald said he wanted them to run consecutively, partly as a deterrent to others.

“Mr. Acosta, since age 14, you have hurt numerous people,” the judge said, citing the defendant’s probation report. “Certainly, the community must be protected from you.”

Members of Acosta’s family gasped when they heard the decision. Acosta appeared to scowl at the judge and kept the angry expression as he was escorted from the Santa Ana courtroom, wearing a yellow jail jumpsuit that could not completely cover a large tattoo on the back of his neck.

Acosta had a long record of crimes, beginning at age 14. They included petty thefts, residential burglaries, receiving stolen property and auto theft. He was on probation for a drug-related matter at the time of the high-speed chase. He also was supposed to be doing 90 days of work for the county’s Environmental Management Agency in a minimum-security program as part of that probation, but he had not showed up for work in nearly a month.

Law enforcement authorities say that Acosta’s record includes an earlier incident in which he fled on foot from the scene of an auto theft and was chased by an Anaheim police helicopter.

Acosta told police after the fatal chase in 1987 that he realized that he was driving dangerously and that someone could get hurt.

At Acosta’s trial, Deputy Public Defender William G. Kelley argued to jurors: “I’m not here to tell you he didn’t do something dangerous. I’m here to tell you he’s not guilty of murder.”

Intent to kill is not required for a second-degree murder conviction. Prosecutors must only prove “implied malice,” a reckless disregard for life.

Kelley argued to Judge Fitzgerald on Friday that it would be an injustice to run Acosta’s three murder-conviction sentences consecutively.

“Mr. Acosta had no control over how many people would be in those helicopters,” Kelley argued. He added that Acosta was only indirectly responsible for the crash.

“Mr. Acosta started the ball rolling; but the evidence is undisputed that there was at the very least negligence involved by somebody on that helicopter . . . somebody screwed up,” Kelley said.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas J. Borris argued that Acosta was directly responsible, because he could have stopped the chase at any time.

“We’re talking about the ultimate menace to society sitting here in this courtroom,” Borris said.

The chase began when Santa Ana police officers spotted what they believed was a stolen 1983 Nissan Pulsar in an apartment complex. They turned on their siren and flashing lights, ordering the driver to stop.

But Acosta instead sped south on MacArthur Boulevard. He drove through Costa Mesa into Irvine, then north on the Costa Mesa Freeway and west on the Riverside Freeway. He exited at Lemon Street, near his own home, when the car blew a tire. He was arrested immediately.

Police later said helicopters are an important tool in high-speed chases because they can reduce the risk of accidents on the ground by helping ground units keep track of the fleeing driver.

Prosecutor Borris said after the sentencing that while such a crash might be unprecedented, anyone in Acosta’s position should have recognized the danger.

“It’s possible, it’s foreseeable, it’s reasonable to think that, hey, somebody may crash,” Borris said.

The judge’s sentence was considered unusually stiff for a second-degree murder conviction. For example, if Acosta had been convicted of first-degree murder for shooting someone, he could have received only 27 years to life.

In fact, that was part of Kelley’s argument.

“This isn’t a case where he stabbed somebody or shot somebody,” Kelley told the court. “He didn’t know the helicopters were going to crash.”

Acosta has been in Orange County Jail on $250,000 bail since the crash.

Judge Fitzgerald noted for the record that Acosta’s real name is Gonzalez.

“Good luck, Mr. Acosta, or Mr. Gonzalez,” the judge told him. “You’re going to need it.”