Driver Will Face Trial on Murder Charge

Calling it a “mind-boggling” case, a Municipal Court judge Monday set March 23 for the arraignment of a Beverly Hills man accused of murder for allegedly killing a promising young engineer in a drunk driving accident after being arrested on DUI offenses at least eight times previously.

Authorities disagree on the precise rap sheet of John Ernest Castro, 36, but California Highway Patrol Investigator D.J. Pokorny said he has racked up 13 drunk-driving convictions, all in Kern County, dating back to 1978.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Asari, the lead prosecutor, prefers a more conservative count of “at least eight.”

Whatever the number, none of the law enforcement officials can say why Castro, who used a handful of aliases in the commission of several other crimes, was still a free man, although his driver’s license had been revoked after his last DUI conviction in 1994.

“I just don’t know how he got out,” Municipal Judge Norris Goodwin said after reading aloud many of Castro’s convictions and binding over the case to Los Angeles Superior Court in San Fernando.

“At some point in his career, he was aware that this type of behavior was dangerous.”

The death occurred Jan. 11, prosecutors say, when Castro drove his white Nissan 300ZX south on the Golden State Freeway toward Castaic.

Witnesses estimated his speed at nearly 100 mph, and a blood test later showed a blood-alcohol content of at least 0.17%, well over the .08% legal definition of drunk.

About a mile south of the Hasley Canyon Road offramp in Castaic Junction, he allegedly rear-ended a U-Haul trailer attached to a blue Jeep Wrangler. The Jeep flipped, fatally injuring Mahdad Koosh, 22, of Westlake Village, who was completing a solo cross-country drive.

Dan Koosh, the accident victim’s father, described his only child as a selfless adventurer who sought to help society. A recent graduate of Rensselaer 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 the Grossman Burn Center 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, had served three separate prison terms of less than a year each--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 said little outside the courtroom, but in the hearing they outlined the two central pieces of their argument. First, they contend that Castro’s convictions are too old to be relevant and do not prove that he fully grasped the danger of his actions. Second, they say the mechanics of the hitch connecting the trailer to the Jeep may have been responsible for Koosh’s death.

“We need to know what he knew,” said defense attorney Larry Boyle. “And all we know now is that there were priors. And that is insufficient.”

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, though he noted that the records may not contain convictions before the mid-1980s, which may however be on file at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

He defended Kern County’s handling of Castro. In 1990, he said, 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, Jagels said, Castro might have done more prison time, since the bulk of his convictions appear to have occurred before 1990.

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

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

Jagels shared Los Angeles County officials’ frustrations over 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.”

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.