Man Guilty of Murder in Fatal Crash

A Granada Hills man could spend the rest of his life in prison after a jury ruled Tuesday that he was responsible for killing a Van Nuys couple and their young son while he was high on drugs and attempting to flee police in a stolen truck.

The six-man, six-woman jury handed down verdicts that found Daniel John O’Hare, 28, guilty on three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Ernesto Antonio Medina, Anna Luz Medina and their 11-year-old son, Carlos.

He is scheduled to be sentenced March 27 by Superior Court Judge L. Jeffrey Wiatt, who could impose a sentence of from 55 years to life in state prison.

O’Hare, who stared morosely at the floor as the clerk delivered the verdicts, was also convicted on nine other counts including attempting to evade arrest, driving under the influence, possession of a controlled substance, receiving stolen property, driving a stolen car and leaving the scene of an accident.

“I want them to know how much emotion I feel,” said Ana Rojas, mother of Anna Luz Medina. “I want the man who killed my family to go to jail forever.”

Rojas said the verdict would provide a measure of satisfaction but added that it would not spare her 9-year-old granddaughter, Yesenia, from enduring feelings of pain and loss from losing her immediate family.

“She’s still very sad. Very, very sad,” said Rojas, fighting back tears. “At night she still cries out for her mommy and daddy. She misses her brother a lot. She doesn’t like to go to the park without him.”

“It’s a sad case for the victims’ family,” acknowledged O’Hare’s defense attorney, Stephan A. DeSales. “And also for the O’Hare family. They won’t get their son back.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Bert Schneirow said the conviction should serve as an example for others. “His conduct was egregious,” Schneirow said. “At least the sentence offers a little bit more protection to the community that people like him will be off the road.”

The Medinas’ car was struck at Hayvenhurst Avenue and Parthenia Street in North Hills at about 12:20 a.m. on Aug. 11, 1995, as O’Hare fled from police in a stolen sports utility vehicle.

Schneirow--who said he is retiring after this case, ending a nearly 30-year career with the district attorney’s office--successfully argued that O’Hare knew that what he was doing was illegal and dangerous, but did it anyway.

In Van Nuys, meanwhile, Rojas says her granddaughter, who was injured in the crash, is slowly adjusting to life without her parents. She credits her next-door neighbors, Juan and Esther Linares and their daughter Patricia, for taking in Yesenia as one of their own.

Like most little girls, Yesenia rides her bike, swims and eats pizza, Rojas said. At night, however, she can be heard quietly uttering in English the words that break her grandmother’s heart: “I love my daddy, my mommy, my brother.”