Conviction Is Upset in O.C. Copter Deaths

An appellate court has thrown out the murder conviction of an Anaheim man who led police on 1987 chase in a stolen car that resulted in the crash of two police helicopters and the deaths of three men on board.

Justice Thomas F. Crosby of the 4th District Court of Appeal said that while Vincent William Acosta, now 23, may have been guilty of “despicable behavior,” that did not make him criminally responsible for the air crash.

Acosta, who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison on three counts of second-degree murder, cannot be retried on murder charges, the appellate court said in a 2-1 ruling.

That ruling, made public Thursday, left open the possibility that he could be retried on a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.

The court found that Acosta could not have foreseen that his actions would cause the helicopter crash.

Ironically, the court noted, Acosta could have been found guilty of murder if someone on the ground had been killed. Acosta told police after his arrest that he knew that those chasing him on the ground were in danger “to the bone.”

“There is not a jot of evidence (that Acosta’s) frenetic style of driving affected the helicopter’s pursuit in any way,” Justice Edward J. Wallin wrote in the lead opinion. “Acosta’s flight only caused the helicopter pilots to be there. . . . The risk created for the group in the air was minimal.”

Officers of Santa Ana’s police auto theft detail spotted Acosta driving a stolen car about 10 p.m. on March 10, 1987. When they told him who they were, he sped away.

Driving 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 Riverside Freeway near his home in Anaheim.

At times during the chase he was seen smiling at his pursuers and chasing other cars off the roadway. The 45-minute chase ended when police captured him.

Pursuing in the 48-mile chase were helicopter units from Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

The air tragedy occurred when the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa helicopter pilots agreed that the Newport unit should take the lead when Acosta’s vehicle crossed into that city. But the Costa Mesa helicopter climbed under the other one and collided with it. Both helicopters fell, but all three deaths were in the Costa Mesa helicopter.

Killed were officers James D. Ketchum and John W. Libolt, both 39, and civilian observer Jeffrey A. Pollard, 29, who was on his first helicopter ride.

Acosta admitted that he knew that helicopters were chasing him and that he even turned off his lights at times to evade them.

But Justice Wallin wrote that Acosta’s awareness of the helicopters was not sufficient for a murder verdict, because such a verdict would require that Acosta knew that there was a high probability that his actions could cause a death.

Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Maurice L. Evans said he is very surprised about the court’s reversal, which his office will study before deciding what to do next, he said.

One possibility, Evans said, is to take the issue to the state Supreme Court.

“We thought that it was a murder case, and that’s why we tried it as murder,” Evans said.

Acosta also claimed in his appeal that the 45-year sentence was unusually cruel. But the justices said that is a moot point now that his conviction has been reversed.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald had sentenced Acosta to 15 years for each of the three deaths and ordered that the terms be served consecutively. The district attorney’s office had recommended 30 years total.

Acosta has a long history of convictions dating back to his early teens, including car thefts and residential burglaries.

Fitzgerald told Acosta when sentencing him two years ago: “You’ve been an accident going somewhere to happen since you were 14 years old.”

The justices did uphold Acosta’s conviction for driving a stolen car. But he has already served enough prison time on that conviction to be freed if prosecutors decide not to pursue a new trial in the helicopter deaths.

The issue of Acosta’s responsibility for that crash resulted in a rare response from the court, in which all three justices wrote their own opinions.

Wallin wrote that Acosta could face some kind of criminal liability, even though he cannot be retried for murder.

Crosby agreed with reversing the murder conviction but wrote that he does not think Acosta can be retried on anything.

The victims “were not in the zone of danger in this case by any stretch of the imagination,” Crosby said, “and the collision could hardly have reasonably been foreseen by Acosta.”

He noted that the accident was extraordinary and that legal research and expert testimony showed that no similar crash had ever occurred in the air before.

But Justice Henry T. Moore voted to uphold Acosta’s conviction. “The events leading up to the helicopter crash were set in motion by (Acosta’s) decision to flee from the police,” he stated. “It was predictable that, in response, the police would pursue him and use whatever means available to locate and capture him.”

Moore cast the deciding vote with Wallin that will permit prosecutors to retry Acosta on a lesser charge.

At his trial, Acosta’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender William G. Kelley, argued that no matter how tragic it was, the crash was caused by an error by the Costa Mesa pilot.

Times staff writers Kevin Johnson and Matt Lait contributed to this story.