Drunk Driver Guilty Again in Alley Death : Trial: Danny Ornelas is convicted of the lesser charge of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. He killed mother of three--and may soon be freed.

A speeding driver who struck and killed a Newport Beach woman in the alley behind her home was convicted Tuesday of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in his second trial--a verdict that means he may soon be free.

An Orange County Superior Court jury convicted Danny David Ornelas, 21, in the 1988 death of Debbie Killelea, 37, a mother of three. The verdict was considered a victory by the defense.

A previous jury had convicted Ornelas of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, a more serious charge, and a judge had sentenced him to the maximum 10 years in prison.

An appellate court, however, found that the first trial judge erred in his instructions to the jury and overturned the conviction. The district attorney was allowed to refile charges.

“This was the verdict we were asking for,” said Ralph Bencangey, Ornelas’ attorney. He said Ornelas now faces a maximum sentence of four years, less than Ornelas has already served with work and good behavior time credits.

“As soon as we get his time confirmed, he’ll be out,” Bencangey said. A hearing was set for Friday to determine Ornelas’ prison time.

But Brian Killelea said of the man who killed his wife, “I don’t personally think that anything he serves will be long enough. . . . I hope he’s going to be happy with himself, long term. He has caused a lot of emotional tragedy on my end. Nothing is going to undo what he’s created here.”

The case drew much media attention, largely because the accident was unwittingly recorded on a dramatic videotape by a passenger in the car that Ornelas was driving.

The Sept. 1, 1988, death of Killelea also sparked a public uproar against drunk driving and prompted renewed calls for the placement of speed bumps and stop signs in the alley where the accident occurred and others like it.

After Tuesday’s verdict was read, Blanca Ornelas, the defendant’s mother, sobbed with joy, saying: “Thank you, Jesus.”

She said that her son “has already been in prison and I think he’s paid for it. I think he’s suffered a lot.” She added that it was her birthday and that the favorable verdict “was all I asked for.”

Ornelas, of Huntington Park, smiled at his family and friends in the courtroom and was patted on the back by his attorney, who told him: “We won.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Randolph J. Pawloski could not be reached for comment.

Elizabeth Quesada, Ornelas’ sister, said that once he gets out, the family is going to “throw a party.” She said her brother, who earned an associate of arts college degree while at Soledad prison, plans to attend Biola University once he is free.

The only person in the victim’s family to attend the court session was her mother, who left quickly after the announcement was read.

Killelea’s brother, Mike Kilfoy, said later that the verdict was “a disappointment to the entire family. . . . We personally don’t think justice was served.”

He also said the jurors “sent the wrong message to drivers who drink and kill somebody. . . . The 10-year sentence was less than acceptable. This isn’t acceptable at all.”

During the trial, the prosecution had contended that Ornelas and a pair of friends were drinking 151-proof rum and malt liquor at the beach that Labor Day weekend of the accident.

Ornelas then went joy-riding in a friend’s car. His blood-alcohol level was 0.18--more than twice the currently legal limit, prosecutors alleged. They said that he was speeding up to 45 m.p.h. in a 15-m.p.h. zone at the time he struck the victim.

Killelea, who had been involved in community efforts to slow traffic in the alleys, stood in the street facing the car with her hands on her hips, apparently trying to get Ornelas to slow down.

At the last second, Killelea tried to get out of the way, but Ornelas’ car veered in the same direction, hitting her.

The last seconds of the crash were capture on videotape, which was one of the crucial pieces of evidence in both trials. The tape showed Killelea trying to run out of the car’s path as it bore down on her. Two of her three children are seen in the videotape watching in horror as the car approaches and strikes their mother.

The defense argued throughout the case that the victim was to blame for the accident for acting “like a traffic cop.” Bencangey said that Ornelas “took proper evasive action.”

Unlike the first jury, which struggled for five days before ruling that Ornelas was guilty of “grossly negligent” vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, the jury Tuesday decided the case in less than eight hours.

They concluded that Ornelas was guilty of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, without gross negligence.

“The accident was her fault as much as his,” said jury foreman Edward L. Kuhel of Huntington Beach. “If she didn’t step out in front of him, he probably would have gone straight.”

Juror Gigi H. Cassidy said that to find Ornelas guilty of gross negligence, the panel would have had to find that he disregarded something foreseen and “somebody jumping out in front of your car is not foreseen.”