Drunk-Driving Convictions Upheld

A federal appeals panel has affirmed the conviction of a Studio City man for both murder and manslaughter in the drunk-driving death of a 4-year-old girl killed when the man’s car crashed into the family’s home near Universal City.

In filing their opinion Thursday, the justices of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that James Benjamin Masoner could be found guilty of both offenses for the same death, which Masoner’s attorney had argued was a legal contradiction.

A jury convicted Masoner, an insurance salesman, of killing Jessica Shaner in December, 1987, when his car plowed into the home of Timothy and Barbara Shaner in the 3800 block of Broadlawn Drive.

The California Court of Appeals affirmed the jury’s decision in October, 1989. On Thursday, the federal court of appeals agreed.

Masoner’s attorney, Philip Rafferty, argued that in order for a defendant to be convicted of murder, the jury must find that the killing was committed with malice; to be convicted of manslaughter, the jury must find that the killing was committed without malice.

“He was convicted of killing Jessica Shaner with malice and he was also convicted of killing her without malice,” Rafferty said. “Those two offenses are mutually exclusive. You can be convicted of one or neither, but not both.”

Rafferty argued that the jury’s finding of guilt on the manslaughter charge implied acquittal of the second-degree murder charge. Masoner was sentenced to a 15-year prison term based on the murder charge.

But the federal appeals panel ruled that the jury’s finding was not necessarily inconsistent because the jurors were never instructed that they must find absence of malice in order to convict on the manslaughter count, Rafferty said.

Rafferty said his client plans to petition the decision, based on the federal court’s failure to address several arguments included in the petition.

News of the decision came as a relief to others.

“I feel--as I felt at the time of the case itself--that the second-degree murder conviction and the penalty he received was totally appropriate for his conduct, which was totally outrageous,” said John K. Spillane, who prosecuted the case. Spillane is now head deputy at the district attorney’s Antelope Valley office.