Drunk Driver Gets 15 Years in Fatal Crash

Declaring that people who drink and drive “should listen to what is said in this courtroom, and listen well,” a judge sentenced a former debutante Thursday to 15 years to life in prison for causing a fiery crash that killed a father of four.

After hearing tearful statements from the dead man’s family and Susan Conkey Rhea, the repeat drunk driver and admitted alcoholic who caused the fatal crash, Superior Court Judge Bert Glennon Jr. imposed the maximum sentence the law allows. Rhea will not become eligible for parole until she serves 12 years, Deputy Dist. Atty. Danette Meyers said.

The judge, prosecutor and defense attorney agreed that the case was one of the most tragic they’d ever seen.

Rhea, who lived in Sherman Oaks and worked in Beverly Hills as a stockbroker, was just three days out of a rehabilitation facility when she again drank and drove, speeding down Sherman Way in a Lincoln Mark VII with the headlights off. Jesus Berumen, 45, burned to death after Rhea slammed into the rear of his Ford Tempo at about 80 mph shortly before midnight on Jan. 30, 1995.

The case was delayed for more than a year as lawyers tried to resolve it with a plea bargain that would have paid Berumen’s widow and children $35,000 in restitution if prosecutors dropped the second-degree murder charge. But when the family learned of Rhea’s three prior drunk-driving arrests, they rejected the deal.

“The fact that she tried to put a price to my husband’s life just made it worse,” said Berumen’s widow, Gloria, in a statement read in court Thursday by her son Jesus. “Not all the money in the world could replace him.”

Instead, the Reseda family has paid a heavy price: The oldest son, Tomas, said in an interview outside the courtroom that he had hoped to study to be an architect. But he was forced to quit high school to work and help his mother support the family. He holds down two jobs.

Had the family accepted the plea bargain, Rhea could have spent little more than a year in prison, prosecutor Meyers said, adding that Rhea has not accepted full responsibility for her crime or demonstrated any genuine remorse for what the Berumen family has suffered.

Since her husband was killed, Gloria Berumen said, “I feel as if I am drowning in our anguish and our sadness.” She added that the dream she shared with her husband has been shattered. “My husband was working hard so that one day our children would have a modest career and be good citizens. She destroyed our dream.”

Jesus, his father’s namesake, grew teary-eyed as he told the judge that Rhea didn’t seem to care about anyone but herself when she drank and drove. “She’s so irresponsible. I don’t know what I am going to tell my baby brother. That this woman decided to go out and party and killed our father?”

But Rhea, who declined to testify during her trial, told the judge that no matter what sentence he gave her, “the greatest punishment of all is living knowing I took a life and cannot replace that life.”

Sobbing, she continued: “I never intended for anything like this to happen. Indeed, in this case the wrong person died. It should have been me.”

Saying she wanted to tell the Berumens “the truth” about what happened that night, she denied testimony from paramedics and other witnesses that she’d put on makeup and looked in the mirror while Jesus Berumen burned to death. She claimed she would have rushed to save him had she not become “incapacitated with shattered glass embedded in my eye, nose and chin.”

She said she was unconscious before, during and after the accident, and didn’t know she’d killed someone until she was booked at the Van Nuys Jail. And, she said she holds the rehabilitation center responsible for misdiagnosing her bipolar disorder and prescribing medication that diminished her ability to resist the temptation to drink.

She implored the judge to reduce her sentence so she could begin a career as a drug and alcohol counselor and tell her story to other alcoholics and drunk drivers.

Prosecutors obtained the second-degree murder conviction under the legal theory that a repeat drunk driver who has attended alcohol-education classes knows the consequences and dangers. By continuing to drink and drive, the repeat offender demonstrates a disregard for human life--a key element of second-degree murder.

In upholding the murder conviction, Glennon told Rhea: “The jury’s verdict in the case is more than amply supported by the evidence.”

The monetary offer troubled prosecutors in the Van Nuys office. Head Deputy Phil Wynn said restitution offers are commonplace in other cases, but rare in those involving the loss of life.

The office helped set up a bank account for donations to the family. So far, about $12,000 has been received, said Gloria Morin, the office’s victim-witness advocate.

Rhea, the youngest of a naval officer’s eight children, graduated from the exclusive Marlborough School in Los Angeles and from UCLA. She attended cotillions and was an accomplished concert pianist and a talented dancer and poet.

The Berumens traveled 1,200 miles from a ranch in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, following the seasonal paths worn by Jesus’ father, a migrant farm worker. They settled in Los Angeles, and their dream lay with the next generation, working hard to provide their children with college educations and other advantages.

Court records show Rhea’s drinking problem began in 1980, the year before she graduated from UCLA. She was first arrested for drunk driving at age 29, refusing to take a breath test. She pleaded guilty to reckless driving. A year later, she was arrested after colliding with a car on the Ventura Freeway. She again refused to be tested and bragged that she “beat the DUI last time” and would beat it again in court. She pleaded no contest, was sentenced to 34 days in jail and was ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

In October, 1993, Rhea drove off the road near Lake Tahoe. She told police she had consumed three glasses of wine at a nearby casino, but her blood-alcohol level was .27%--more than three times the legal limit. She was sentenced to 15 days in jail and five years probation. She also was ordered to install on her car an Interlock device that would freeze the ignition if she failed a breath test.

According to testimony, Rhea had been sober nine months when she became depressed and started drinking again in January 1995. She checked into a rehab facility for two weeks, but checked out early on Jan. 27--three days before the crash that killed Berumen.