Drunk Driver Is Convicted of Manslaughter at His Retrial : Justice: A previous murder conviction in the case, which involved the death of a woman and her three children, had been overturned on appeal.

A Fullerton man who was first convicted of second-degree murder five years ago in connection with a car crash that killed a 36-year-old woman and her three children was convicted Monday of a lesser charge of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in a retrial of the case.

Michael Reding, now 33, showed relief at the verdict, which was the best his lawyers said they could have hoped for. But Robert Trueblood, who lost his entire family in the crash, sat quietly as the verdict was read and left the courtroom without speaking to anyone.

Reding won a new trial two years ago when the 4th District Court of Appeal overturned the 1986 murder conviction, primarily because of a finding that the trial judge should not have permitted evidence related to the possibility of drug abuse by Reding. It was the first murder conviction in Orange County to stem from a traffic crash. The 4th District Court of Appeal let stand Reding’s conviction for felony drunk driving in the incident. He was found to have a blood alcohol content slightly above 0.10, which was the legal limit at the time.

Reding’s attorney, public defender Michael P. Giannini, said after the verdict was announced Monday: “It was a good verdict, legally and morally. What he did was clearly serious, but it was not murder.”

Giannini said that after hearing the clerk read the verdict, he turned to Reding, who was shaking, and asked if he knew what it meant.

“His response was, ‘It means I’ve got a life,’ ” Giannini said.

The jurors, who deliberated less than two days, said their decision hinged on the matter of whether prosecutors had proved “implied malice,” an element needed for a second-degree murder conviction.

“We spent hours going over (it) and its definition,” said juror Lindsay Andreotti of Placentia. “We asked over and over again: ‘Did Michael Reding have any implied malice when he got into that car?’ ”

Reding had been sentenced to 15 years to life for four counts of murder after the first trial. The conviction of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. Reding has been incarcerated for five years, and attorneys say the lesser verdict might mean a difference of about three to four years of actual prison time served when Reding is resentenced on April 15 by Superior Court Judge Dennis S. Choate.

Giannini said that almost as significant to Reding is the fact that he will no longer have the label of murderer next to his name.

“That is so important to him,” Giannini said.

Reding admitted that he had been drinking and that he was not paying proper attention when his car went out of control on State College Boulevard in Fullerton on Oct. 23, 1984, and collided with a car driven by Pamela Trueblood of Fullerton. Riding with Trueblood were her children Eric, 11; Kerry, 9, and Scott, 8, who were killed, and two other children, who were injured. The group had been returning from a children’s gymnastics class at Cal State Fullerton.

“Mrs. Trueblood never had a chance to swerve or even brake before being hit,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael A. Jacobs told jurors at Reding’s retrial.

A bartender testified that Reding had drunk about six beers and several kamikazes, a mixed drink that includes vodka. Witnesses at the scene testified that they estimated that Reding had been traveling as fast as 70 m.p.h. in a 45-m.p.h. zone. He had begun to pass a car on the right, they said, then cut sharply back toward the center divider. He crossed the divider, they said, and struck the Trueblood car head on.

Reding was also injured in the crash.

One of those in the car Reding had tried to pass testified at the retrial that Reding’s car engine “sounded like an engine that was floor-boarded” when he started to pass them.

At his first trial, Reding said that he had been handling some tapes when he looked up and saw that he was about to hit the car ahead of him and that he swerved to the right. He then swerved back to the left , he said, when he saw that he was about to go over an embankment. As he swerved left, he crossed into incoming traffic.

Reding did not testify at his second trial.

Reding, a physicist, had been an engineer at Northrop Corp. at the time of the crash. He lost his job before he was convicted in the first trial. Reding said he felt tremendous remorse over what happened, but he told reporters at the time of his first trial that he did not think he was guilty of murder.

Monday, Reding’s mother, Kathleen Reding of Fairfield, in Northern California, said she could hardly believe it when she heard the verdict.

“This whole thing has been like a knife twisting in my back,” Kathleen Reding said. “This is the first lift in a long time.”

His father, Charles W. Reding, said afterward: “I am not ashamed of my son. He is not a bad boy. Mike has never tried to say he wasn’t guilty.”

Charles Reding said the family is “hoping that at least now he can be sent to a minimum security facility.” Reding was in Soledad state prison when he learned that his first conviction had been overturned.