HUNTINGTON BEACH : Judge Upholds 1987 Murder Conviction

An Orange County judge Friday refused to set aside the 1987 second-degree murder conviction of a Huntington Beach man who won an appellate court decision to temporarily overturn his conviction for selling the drug PCP to a surfer who later drowned.

The 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana had found errors in the instructions given to the jury that convicted Mark Taylor, 34, in the death of Adrian Obregon, 18.

In April, 1987, Obregon bought PCP from Taylor shortly before entering the water at Huntington State Beach, where he drowned. The case marked the first time Orange County prosecutors had ever sought a murder conviction against a drug supplier when the drug was not directly the cause of death.

Prosecutors successfully argued that even though Taylor, now serving a sentence of 15 years to life in prison, did not intend to harm Obregon, death would not have occurred if Obregon hadn’t been on PCP. But the appellate court found that Judge Richard J. Beacom had not properly instructed the jurors on what the standard for guilt should be in such a case.

So the district attorney’s office asked the state Supreme Court to reconsider the appellate decision. The high court agreed and defined the standard for guilt in such cases: that the drug supplier in such a situation knows there is a “high probability” of death. The high court then sent the case back to Beacom..

On Friday, Beacom found that the case met that “high probability” standard and refused to reverse Taylor’s conviction. Taylor’s lawyers indicated they would appeal Beacom’s ruling.