Man Sentenced in Death of Road Worker

An Antelope Valley man who was on PCP when his truck hit and killed a Caltrans employee working on a freeway was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in state prison for vehicular manslaughter, but not before getting an emotional berating from the victim’s widow.

“You have placed a far greater sentence on me than anything this court could give you today,” a tearful Norma J. Buser told Scott Ellis III, 43, of Lake Los Angeles.

In a plea bargain last month, Ellis pleaded no contest to the charge in the July 29 death of Callie Joel Buser, 55, of West Hills.

“I am condemned to sleepless nights and nightmares,” the Pacoima Junior High School math teacher told Ellis as about 20 of her late husband’s orange-vested co-workers sat nearby in court. “I see him maimed and his dismembered parts that cannot be put back together.”

Buser, a surveying supervisor who had been with Caltrans for little more than a year, was standing on the shoulder of the northbound lanes of the Antelope Valley Freeway south of Soledad Canyon Road when Ellis’ truck cut across three lanes of traffic and slammed into him and his truck parked nearby.

Prosecutors at one point filed a second-degree murder charge against Ellis after learning he also had been involved in--but never prosecuted for--another PCP-related accident on April 7, 1991. However, that charge was dismissed as part of the plea bargain.

The deal last month had outraged Buser’s widow, who wanted prosecutors to put Ellis on trial for murder. On Tuesday, she told Lancaster Superior Court Judge Thomas Stoever that the 10-year sentence was “too small,” but said outside the court that she understood the difficulties in the case.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Ogden said Ellis’ wife and psychiatrist would have been the two best witnesses to help obtain a second-degree murder conviction carrying a maximum 15-year sentence. But neither could have been compelled to testify because of spousal and doctor privileges.

Meanwhile, Caltrans officials confirmed that they plan to name a new surveying office in the Santa Clarita area after Buser.

A Caltrans spokeswoman said a formal dedication ceremony for the converted California Highway Patrol building at the Golden State Freeway and Lyons Avenue probably will occur in January.