Man in Fatal Crash Convicted of Second-Degree Murder

A 22-year-old Orange man involved in a fatal crash while trying to escape police was convicted Wednesday of two counts of second-degree murder.

Scott Alden Whitson faces 15 years to life in prison on each murder count when he is sentenced in December.

The crash killed a passenger in his car, Derick Romo, 26, of Moreno Valley, and the driver of another, Janice Diehm, 46, of Fountain Valley. Whitson and two others were injured, including a passenger in Diehm’s car who nearly died.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Carolyn Kirkwood contended during the trial that Whitson was “stone-cold sober” and knew what he was doing on the night of the June 11, 1993, crash, making the case one of murder rather than manslaughter.

She said Whitson had run at least two red lights and reached speeds of about 80 m.p.h.

“He had engaged in very, very dangerous driving for a distance of almost two miles,” she said.

Defense attorney Gary Pohlson told the jury in his opening trial statements that Whitson “made a huge error that he will suffer for the rest of his life,” but that he should be found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter. He said Whitson is “functionally retarded” and had been urged by his passengers to keep going.

“He wasn’t thinking,” the lawyer said. “He was just panicked.”

A few minutes before the crash, a Costa Mesa motorcycle officer spotted a man running in a dark parking lot. The man, who got in Whitson’s car, had been trying to steal a stereo, Kirkwood said in her opening statements to the jury.

The motorcycle officer then saw Whitson’s car speed through a red light with its lights out. He followed the car but did not chase it because of the dangerous speeds, she said. Whitson had run a red light at Ward Street and Slater Avenue in Fountain Valley when he plowed into Diehm’s car, Kirkwood said.

“The only reason the defendant survived is because he had an air bag,” Kirkwood said.

Diehm, a marriage and family counselor, had been out to dinner with her husband that night, and was driving home a baby-sitter when the crash occurred. Diehm’s husband, worried when she didn’t return from what should have been a short trip, went out looking for her and came upon the crash scene, Kirkwood said.