No Murder Verdict in Fatal Crash

Although it found her guilty of lesser crimes, a Pasadena jury deadlocked Friday on a second-degree murder charge against a driver whose defense was that she was too drunk to know any better when she used a spare key to escape from a traffic stop, then killed another driver just a mile away.

Jurors convicted Lisa Welchert, 30, of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in connection with the fatal incident in Arcadia last year, when her blood-alcohol level was more than four times the legal limit. They also convicted her of driving under the influence and causing bodily injury, and of driving with a blood alcohol-level of more than 0.2%. She faces up to 13 years in prison at her sentencing May 23.

But the Superior Court panel, which deliberated for five days, was deadlocked 8 to 4 in favor of acquittal on the more serious murder charge, which required a showing of criminal intent.

During Welchert’s trial, her attorney--public defender Grady Russell--used the relatively novel argument that his client was too drunk to form that intent, and thus could not be convicted.

“The level of intoxication was an unbelievable level. . . . She blacked out until she woke up in the hospital,” Russell said after the verdicts were announced. “There is no evidence she went [to a bar] to get drunk with the aim of dulling her senses to kill someone.”

Russell also maintained that no jury would consider Welchert a murderer and that the second-degree murder charge was too harsh for the offense.

“You’re saying this . . . young woman . . . should be in same class as the Menendez brothers or Charles Manson,” he said.

However Deputy Dist. Atty. Caroline Peck called Friday’s verdict a case of “twisted thinking.” She noted that Welchert had two prior drunk-driving convictions, had attended a series of detoxification classes and knew full well the consequences of her actions.

“Malice is prior knowledge--and she had years and years of knowledge and education,” Peck said.

Welchert was stopped on Huntington Drive on Feb. 9, 1999, by Arcadia police after a report that she had driven through an intersection at 5 mph and was stopped only when another motorist jumped into her car and pulled the hand brake.

An officer took her keys and walked back to his patrol car to fill out paperwork. Welchert, who was prone on the passenger side of her car, suddenly sat up, pulled out a spare key and sped off.

A mile away, she drove her car into a station wagon driven by John Chan, 44, killing him and hospitalizing his wife and son. She also hit a second vehicle, injuring its driver, before coming to a stop. Welchert suffered only minor injuries.

During the trial, prosecutors introduced evidence showing that Welchert had a 1993 conviction for drunk driving in Washington state, had twice received alcohol counseling and eight years ago attempted to use a spare key to flee Washington state authorities during a drunk-driving arrest.

Peck said those circumstances led prosecutors to seek a second-degree murder charge, which carries a sentence of 15 years to life. Peck argued that Welchert was such an experienced drinker that she was able to drive when most people would have collapsed.

Russell, however, called the prosecutor’s efforts to portray his client as more alcohol-tolerant than most people as “shameless.”

He accused Arcadia police officers of lying when they testified that his client was able to coherently answer most of their questions when they first stopped her. He also called an expert to the stand who testified that officers exaggerated Welchert’s speed at the time of the crash.

During the trial, Welchert testified that she did not remember driving her car that February night and wished that she, rather than Chan, had died in the fatal crash. She wept Friday when the verdict was announced.