Man Convicted 3 Times of Drunk Driving Faces Murder Charge in Crash

A Canyon Country man convicted three times in the past six years of drunk driving was charged with murder Tuesday in connection with an apparently alcohol-related accident last week that killed a Palmdale woman and injured her two young children.

Scott Brumett, 31, suffered only cuts and bruises in the two-car accident on Placerita Canyon Road in Newhall on Feb. 19, authorities said. The other driver, Wendy Holtz, 26, was killed instantly when Brumett’s auto allegedly strayed into her lane and smashed into her car head-on, knocking her vehicle 75 feet down a cliff. Her 3-year-old son Joshua suffered skull fractures and her 2-year-old daughter Paige received lesser injuries, authorities said.

Witnesses saw Brumett throwing about 10 beer cans out the window of his coupe after the accident, Officer David Pokorny of the California Highway Patrol said.

Prosecutors are confident that results of Brumett’s blood-alcohol test--which will not be ready until late this week--will indicate that he was driving with an alcohol level above the 0.08% point at which drivers are considered legally drunk, Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Davis-Springer said.

Brumett’s three prior convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol prompted the district attorney’s office to try him for murder, an unusually heavy charge in a drunk-driving case, she said.

“We wouldn’t file the murder charge unless we were confident of a reasonable likelihood of a conviction,” Davis-Springer said. To convict Brumett, prosecutors must show he acted “deliberately, in conscious disregard for life” and that he knew the consequences of his actions, she said.

Attorneys and officers refused to detail Brumett’s previous convictions and sentences for other drunk-driving offenses. Davis-Springer, however, said Brumett had to have been informed of the dangers of drunk driving when he underwent an alcohol-rehabilitation program mandated by the court after a previous conviction.

According to Department of Motor Vehicle records, Brumett was first stopped by officers for driving under the influence of alcohol on April 4, 1987, and was convicted in Newhall Municipal Court on May 4, 1987. The day before Brumett’s first misdemeanor conviction, he was cited a second time for drunk driving and was convicted in Van Nuys Municipal court on Feb. 16, 1988.

Although Brumett was ordered to undergo a one-year treatment program after the second conviction, he was arrested again for driving under the influence on Nov. 10, 1988, according to court documents. Brumett was convicted and had his license revoked on May 1, 1989.

Court records indicate a warrant was issued for his arrest later that year after he failed to show up for a court appearance on his second conviction, and his license was again revoked after a hit-and-run accident in June, 1989.

In Tuesday’s case, Brumett was also charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, misdemeanor and felony drunk driving and driving with a suspended license. He could face between 15 years and life in prison if convicted of murder, Davis-Springer said.

Judge Floyd V. Baxter set Brumett’s bail at $1 million despite pleading from James M. Hallett, Brumett’s attorney, who asked that the bail be lowered because there is no risk of Brumett fleeing.

“He was born in Northridge and his daughter lives in Valencia,” Hallett said. “He has strong local ties.”