CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : NEWPORT BEACH : Court Overturns Murder Conviction

An appellate court has thrown out the murder conviction of an Anaheim man who led police on a high-speed, ground and air chase in 1987 that resulted in the crash of two police helicopters and the deaths of three men on board. Justice Thomas F. Crosby stated that Vincent William Acosta might have been guilty of “despicable behavior,” but that didn’t make him responsible for the air crash. Acosta, now 23, who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison on three murder counts, cannot be retried for murder, the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled. That ruling, made public Thursday, left open the possibility of trying him on a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter. Acosta was seen driving a stolen car about 10 p.m. on March 10, 1987, in Santa Ana by members of the Santa Ana Police Department’s auto theft detail. When they told him who they were, he sped away. Driving at speeds up to 90 m.p.h., and at times without lights and on the wrong side of the road, he crossed into Costa Mesa, Irvine, then Newport Beach, before circling back and finally leaving the 91 Freeway near his home in Anaheim.