Driver Guilty of Manslaughter

A Pomona Superior Court jury convicted drunk driver Keith Cook on Friday in the death of Jadine Russell, rejecting the Azusa auto mechanic’s claim that his victim caused her own demise when she declined a blood transfusion for religious reasons.

After three full days of deliberation, the jury found Cook guilty of gross vehicular manslaughter for his reckless and drunken trip down Sierra Madre Avenue last March, which ended with the collision that killed the 55-year-old mother of five, a devout Jehovah’s Witness.

Cook was led from the courtroom in handcuffs, but with at least a partial reprieve. The jury also found him not guilty of murder. Along with guilty verdicts on two drunk driving charges, the mixed verdict could mean a substantially reduced sentence for the 32-year-old defendant.

Cook bowed his head somberly after the verdicts, while his fiancee and ex-wife wept. Across an aisle, three of Russell’s daughters and several friends also cried.

The verdicts came at the end of a 10-day trial that provoked strong emotions everywhere from the courtroom to the talk radio airwaves, with myriad debates about causation, religion and the law.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Larson called the jury’s verdicts “just and reasonable.” Defense attorney Charles Unger said he too was pleased, since the murder acquittal meant his client would do considerably less time in prison.

In a novel defense, Cook’s lawyers had said that Russell had to take responsibility for her own death. Her trauma surgeon from County-USC Medical Center and two medical experts testified that she probably would have lived had she violated her beliefs as a Jehovah’s Witness and taken blood.

“Jadine made her choice and she paid for it. She died,” said James Russell, the victim’s husband, after the verdict. “But should he not be held accountable for what he did? Now it has been noted and proved that he was responsible for her death.”

Russell said his family’s emotional recovery can now begin.

“The noise is over,” Russell said. “Now, we have to go home and go on. It’s what Jadine would have done. She would have gone on and continued her lifestyle as a faithful, active, loyal Witness of Jehovah.”

The trial not only sent James and Katherine Cook’s son to prison; it also emptied their bank accounts as they paid for his defense, family members said. The Cooks left court quickly, without commenting.

Cook’s sister, Dodie O’Keeffe, said the family took some solace in knowing that the verdict wasn’t worse. “It proved our conviction, at least, that the jury didn’t think he was guilty of murder,” she said.

Jurors declined to comment publicly on their verdict and were escorted to their cars by sheriff’s deputies.

With its heavy overlay of religious and legal issues, the case of the People vs. Cook was, from the start, much more than the standard drunk driving case.

There was no direct precedent in California for a defendant trying to avoid culpability by blaming a victim for declining medical treatment for religious reasons. In other circumstances, though, the courts have been loath to forgive defendants when they set a deadly chain of events in motion.

In a California case nearly 100 years ago, for example, a defendant was convicted of murder after shooting a man, who then slit his own throat. In a 1994 case, a defendant was found guilty of beating a man to death, even though the victim’s family refused to administer antibiotics.

And a Louisiana appellate court in October upheld the conviction of a drunk driver for killing a Jehovah’s Witness, who also declined a blood transfusion.

In the Pomona case, Judge Reginald Yates instructed the jurors that they could absolve Cook of Russell’s death if they found that the original injury was not a cause of death. The jury apparently could not make that difficult finding.

Cook will return to court Feb. 11 for sentencing. He will face a term of five to nine years for his conviction of drunk driving and causing an accident with injuries.

The defense said Cook could face as little as four years for the manslaughter conviction; prosecutor Larson said Cook would serve 15 years to life.

Larson said he will ask that the defendant serve the sentences consecutively, meaning Cook would have to serve more than 20 years before being eligible for parole.

Defense attorney Unger said that the sentences should run concurrently and that Cook could be released from prison in as little as four years.

Cook and Russell lived not far apart in the San Gabriel Valley community of Azusa, but they never met.

Russell was an enthusiastic participant in her church’s door-to-door missionary work. A measure of her popularity came after her death, when more than 1,000 people attended her funeral.

Cook is a divorced father of two young children, who came to visit him in the courthouse lockup this week. In 1996, he was put on probation after a drunk driving conviction.

Only an unusual chain of events brought Cook and Russell last March 7.

On that warm night, Russell had been to the movies with her daughter Jennifer, then 24. Cook had been to a birthday party with friends.

As Jadine Russell drove home along dark, two-lane Sierra Madre Avenue, a lost driver making a U-turn suddenly blocked her path. The two collided, and two police officers soon arrived at the scene to investigate the accident.

At about the same time, Cook left the party. A prosecution expert said he must have consumed more than 13 beers to reach his blood alcohol level, more than twice the legal limit. Friends tried to drive him home, but he declined.

Described as “drunk and angry” from an argument at the party, Cook sped along Sierra Madre, driving so fast that one witness said his pickup truck went airborne as it crested a hill, Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Larson told the jury.

Cook skidded and swerved, but hit Russell’s car on a dirt shoulder. The car, in turn, slammed into Russell, her daughter and the two officers, who were all at the roadside, discussing the first accident.

As paramedics were taking her to the hospital by helicopter, and at County-USC Medical Center, Russell repeatedly said, “No blood! No blood! No blood!”

Her insistence was based on the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ tenet against the “consumption” of blood. Members of the church, which has 1 million members in the United States, cite a Biblical admonition from God to Noah after the flood that “you can now eat meat, but pour the blood out on the ground.”

Defense attorney Unger attempted to focus the jury’s attention on Russell’s decision rather than Cook’s behavior.

“Mr. Cook is not responsible for the death of Jadine Russell,” Unger said in his closing argument to the jury. “Jadine Russell had the choice, and she decided it was more important to abide by her beliefs, and to die.”

Prosecutor Larson called the talk of religion a diversion. He told jurors that, if anything, Russell should be admired because she maintained her beliefs in the face of dire consequences. He compared her to Joan of Arc.

Only Cook could be held responsible for setting in motion the chain of events that killed Russell, he said. “She was a healthy, happy 55-year-old woman,” Larson said. “Until Mr. Cook came along.”