Reckless Driver Convicted on Murder Charge : Courts: Prosecution convinces jury that scofflaw Shane Kenneth Young knew his habitual speeding could prove fatal. He was drunk when he accidentally killed his friend, who was on foot.

A chronic speeder from Silverado Canyon who ignored traffic tickets and scores of warnings was found guilty Wednesday of second-degree murder and drunk driving for an October 1994 crash that claimed the life of his close friend.

Shane Kenneth Young, 26, was convicted by an Orange County Superior Court jury that embraced the prosecution’s argument that Young was well aware of the risks as he drove down a rural road at twice the posted speed limit after consuming alcohol and marijuana.

Young was racing down into Silverado Canyon when he swerved into the oncoming lane to pass the car in front of him. Young’s longtime friend and neighbor, Jasmin Marie Cook, 20, was walking along the far edge of the two-lane road with a pair of friends on bikes when Young’s Toyota truck slammed into them.

Cook died an hour later at a hospital. Her friends, who had been riding their bikes along the road’s shoulder, were injured.

Young faces 18 years to life in prison. Prosecutors in the case strayed from the usual practice of charging drivers who kill with vehicular manslaughter, which carries a lesser sentence. Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko said the decision was based on Young’s history of reckless driving and his “disregard for human life.”

“He was not just told not to do this, he was told ‘You’re going to kill somebody,’ ” Molko said after the verdict. “He was told over and over. . . . This was not an accident, this was predictable.”

Defense attorney James W. Steinberg argued that while Young’s irresponsibility led to a horrific incident, his client did not show the “implied malice” required for the murder charge. But jurors agreed that Young should have known his actions endangered the lives of others.

Jury foreman Mark Cohen said Young’s frequent brushes with the law showed that he all but ignored numerous warnings about his speeding from police, his family and neighbors.

“The weight of the evidence was that he had less of a regard for the safety of others than he should have,” said Cohen, 39, of Costa Mesa. “This case is a tragedy all around. All [of the jurors] agreed that this was one of the most difficult decisions we’ve ever had to make in our lives.”

The families of both Young and Cook were on hand for the verdict, but declined to comment after the verdict. Shortly before the proceeding, Diane Young, the defendant’s mother, said her son was not faring well under the strain of imprisonment.

“He had never spent a day in a jail before and it’s hard, very hard for him,” the mother said. “This has been hard on everyone, though.”

The tragedy of the crash reverberated through the small, rustic community of Silverado Canyon. Young and his pickup truck were familiar to many in the 900-resident enclave who had complained about his speeding.

But community members were torn about the issue of the young man’s punishment. Cook’s family, for instance, pleaded that Young, a close family friend, not be charged.

Molko said Cook’s relatives were “emotionally overwhelmed” by the verdict and hoped that the case’s resolution would bring some closure to their grief.

Another unusual twist to the case was Young’s role in a little-known Department of Motor Vehicles study. The young man’s five speeding tickets were enough to have him stripped of his driver’s license months before the crash, but as part of a control group for a state research program, he was allowed to continue driving.

Young’s court-appointed attorney argued that while his client was clearly responsible for Cook’s death, he was not guilty of murder. He told jurors Young should be convicted of a lesser charge of vehicular manslaughter. The charges included four levels of vehicular manslaughter.

“Shane and I do not ask that you find him not guilty of anything in this case. He’s responsible. . . . He needlessly killed Jasmin Cook,” Steinberg said.

But the attorney said Young ignored warnings and never thought his driving could kill someone--the recognition required for second-degree murder.

“Shane thought he could continue to drive this way. Shane thought that the neighbors didn’t have a concern when they complained to him about his driving,” Steinberg said. “Is Shane Young a murderer because he continued to drive after these warnings? Or is he an immature young man?”

But Molko told jurors that Young was cavalier and unrepentant about his reckless driving, which made him a ticking time bomb. At times, Young’s response to warnings about his speeding was to raise his middle finger in defiance, the prosecutor said.

Adding to the danger, Molko said, Young had consumed beer and marijuana on the day of the crash. Young’s blood alcohol level was measured at .05% three hours after the collision, a level within the legal limit. But at the time of the crash, the alcohol level could have measured twice that amount, well over the legal limit of .08%, he said.

The use of second-degree murder charges against drivers who kill can prove to be a difficult tactic for prosecutors, who must show that the defendant acted with a conscious disregard for life. The California Supreme Court ruled in 1981 that prosecutors could pursue the avenue, but it remains an unusual course of action.

The strategy was first used in Orange County in the 1986 case of Michael Reding, who was found guilty of killing a Fullerton mother and her three children. Reding’s murder conviction was reduced on retrial, however, to vehicular manslaughter after jurors struggled with the issue of malice.

Second-degree murder charges held up, though, in the case of Ronald Joseph Allen, who admitted to killing a Mission Viejo couple in 1993 while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The Laguna Beach doctor had a history of driving violations, including a hit-and-run case pending at the time of the fatal accident.

Molko, who also argued the Allen case, said Young’s actions clearly warranted the stepped-up punishments of the murder charges.

“I never had a case when that issue [of conscious disregard] was more explicit,” the prosecutor said. “Unfortunately, it seemed in this case it was just a matter of time, of when this was going to happen with Mr. Young.”

Times staff writer Ken Ellingwood also contributed to this report.