Man With Earlier DUIs Accused in Fatal Crash

A Beverly Hills man with eight to 13 prior drunk driving convictions stands accused of murder for allegedly killing a promising young engineer in another DUI offense.

A Santa Clarita Municipal Court judge, calling the case of John Ernest Castro “mind-boggling,” on Monday set a March 23 Superior Court arraignment.

Authorities disagree on the precise rap sheet of Castro, 36. California Highway Patrol investigator D.J. Pokorny said he has 13 convictions for driving under the influence, all in Kern County, dating to 1978. Deputy Dist. Atty. John Asari, the lead prosecutor in the newest case, prefers a more conservative count of at least eight.

What none of the law enforcement officials can answer is the question of how Castro, who used a handful of aliases in the commission of several other crimes, was still a free man.

“I just don’t know how he got out,” Judge Norris Goodwin said after reading aloud many of Castro’s prior convictions.

Castro--whose driver’s license was revoked after his last DUI conviction in 1994--is charged in the death of Mahad Koosh, 22, of Westlake Village on Jan. 11.

According to prosecutors, Castro was driving south on the Golden State Freeway toward Castaic. Witnesses estimated his speed at nearly 100 mph, and a test later showed a blood-alcohol content of at least 0.17%, well over the 0.08% legal definition of drunk.

About a mile south of the Hasley Canyon Road offramp in Castaic Junction, he allegedly rear-ended a rented trailer attached to a sport-utility vehicle. The vehicle overturned, fatally injuring Koosh, who was driving cross-country alone.

Dan Koosh, Mahdad’s father, described his only child as a selfless adventurer who sought to help society. A recent graduate of Rensselear Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., he was returning to Southern California to begin work at NASA in Huntington Beach.

His accomplishments were all the more remarkable, his father said, in light of the devastating burns he suffered in 1989 when he and a friend were playing with matches near a can of kerosene. Burns covered 80% of Koosh’s body, keeping him in the intensive care unit of Grossman Burn Unit in Sherman Oaks for 49 days.

“He helped people all his life,” Koosh said outside the courtroom, his lower lip quivering. “I told him, ‘You’re a special person to God. He gave you a second chance.’ ”

Details about Castro remain sketchy. The most either side of the case would divulge was that he listed no occupation, he served three separate prison terms of less than a year apiece--the latest for possessing an illegal firearm in 1995--and had moved to Beverly Hills recently after a long period of residence in Bakersfield.

Castro, wearing a blue jail jumpsuit, stared straight ahead during most of Monday’s hearing.

Defense attorneys contend Castro’s prior convictions are too old to be relevant and do not prove that he fully grasped the danger of his actions. And they say the mechanics of the hitch connecting the trailer to the vehicle may have been responsible for Koosh’s death.

Kern County Dist. Atty. Ed Jagels said that he had not heard of Castro before and that his records indicated only five drunk driving convictions, although he noted that the records may not contain convictions before the mid-1980s, which may be on file at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

*

Jagels said that in 1990 a state law took effect allowing felony charges to be filed after a minimum of three drunk driving convictions in seven years. Had that law come in earlier, Castro might have done more prison time, because the bulk of his convictions appear to have occurred before 1990, he said.

Castro’s most recent DUI arrest in 1994 ended in a misdemeanor conviction for public drunkenness, but no jail time. The charge had to be reduced because the Kern County Sheriff’s Department lacks the resources to conduct regular field sobriety and Breathalyzer tests, he said.

When sheriff’s deputies pull over a suspected drunk driver, they usually call in the California Highway Patrol for such tests, Jagels said. In Castro’s 1994 case, the CHP was unable to respond, leaving prosecutors no choice but to seek the lesser charge.

Jagels shared Los Angeles County officials’ frustrations with Castro.

“How many times does society have to warn a guy?” he said. “He was told over and over and over that this was dangerous, and it never sank in.”

Prosecutor Asari said he was stunned at Castro’s ability to avoid more severe punishment.

“We want to make sure he gets the message and make sure another family like the Kooshes doesn’t have to suffer,” Asari said.