Man Convicted in Drunk Driving Death : Court: Scott Brumett, 32, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the accident that killed a Palmdale mother and injured her two children.

A 32-year-old Canyon Country man with a history of drinking and driving convictions was found guilty of second-degree murder Wednesday in the drunk driving death of a Palmdale woman who was run off a rain-slick road in Newhall, prosecutors said.

The guilty verdict, handed down by a San Fernando Superior Court jury, was the fourth time that Scott Brumett has been convicted of drunk driving in the past six-and-a-half years.

The murder conviction means that prosecutors successfully persuaded a jury that Brumett acted deliberately, in conscious disregard of life when the accident occurred, prosecutors said.

In addition to the murder charge, the jury found Brumett guilty of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, misdemeanor and felony drunk driving and driving with a suspended license.

He was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Linda Greenberg, who prosecuted the case.

“I’m relieved,” said Greenberg. “It was a very emotional case.”

On Feb. 19, Brumett lost control of his car on Placerita Canyon Road and smashed into a vehicle driven by Wendy Holtz, causing her car to plunge 75 feet off a cliff.

Holtz, 26, was killed, and her two children, a 3-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter, were injured.

Witnesses told a California Highway Patrol officer that they saw Brumett throw about 10 beer cans out his car window after the accident. His blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit.