O.C. Jury Finds Driver Guilty in Day-Care Deaths

Jurors deliberated less than three hours Thursday before convicting a Santa Ana man of first-degree murder for intentionally ramming his Cadillac into a Costa Mesa playground, killing two preschoolers and injuring five others.

Though the trial left little doubt that Steven Allen Abrams carried out the attack, the verdicts still unleashed a wave of emotion in the courtroom as relatives of the young victims, Sierra Soto and Brandon Wiener, linked hands and broke into tears.

Pamela Wiener clung to a photograph of her 3-year-old son, trembling and crying as a court clerk read the verdicts while Sierra’s mother, Cindy Soto, rocked her head back and sobbed.

Abrams sat silently with his head down and his eyes closed.

The jury of 10 women and two men on Monday will begin the most crucial phase of the case: deciding whether Abrams should be declared not guilty by reason of insanity.

Abrams would be eligible for the death penalty if jurors conclude he was sane. If he is found to be insane, he would be sent to a state psychiatric hospital--either permanently or until doctors deem him fit for release.

The Thursday verdicts concluded the most clear-cut aspect of the case; Abrams’ attorneys had conceded that guilty verdicts were appropriate.

In addition to the two murder counts, the jury convicted Abrams of five charges of attempted murder for the injuries he caused at the preschool and two counts of attempted manslaughter for ramming his car into a motorist before driving onto the playground.

At the Southcoast Early Childhood Learning Center, the mood Thursday was somber--with some employees saying it dredged up terrible memories of the May 3, 1999, crash.

But amid the tears, there was relief at the guilty verdicts, said Tom Bazacas, pastor of Lighthouse Coastal Community Church, which owns the preschool’s property.

“I’m glad that there was a clean verdict on the case,” Bazacas said. “I thought it was fair. As far as closure, it doesn’t bring the kids back.”

Abrams’ attorney, Deputy Public Defender Leonard Gumlia, said he expects testimony at the sanity portion of the trial to last three to four weeks.

The defense is expected to call as many as 20 witnesses, including psychiatrists, police officers, neighbors, relatives and friends.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Debora Lloyd told jurors she believed Abrams planned the attack as a selfish attempt to make a judge feel guilty for sending him to jail four years earlier for stalking.

According to witness testimony, Abrams drove past the preschool once before making a U-turn, accelerating and swerving onto the crowded playground.

Abrams sat still in the car after the onslaught, gripping the steering wheel, while rescuers attempted to free trapped children. Police arrested Abrams after he admitted he intentionally rammed into the children.

It was an act Abrams told psychiatrists he’d thought about for many years, according to reports and testimony. He talked about the effect such an act would have on the judge who handled his stalking case and said it also might silence the “brain-wave police” he said were beaming him signals to kill.

Lloyd, the prosecutor, would not comment on the upcoming sanity portion of the trial. In her closing statement, however, Lloyd said she believed Abrams’ past admitted drug use, not insanity, helps explain his actions that day.

Two court-appointed psychiatrists interviewed Abrams before the trial to evaluate his sanity. One of them concluded Abrams suffers from a psychosis so severe that he should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, records show. A second psychiatrist appointed by the court did not make a determination on legal sanity.

The trial included emotional testimony from witnesses who viewed the crash--and others who tried to free trapped and injured children.

One of those witnesses, James Popov, said he relied on his religious faith to move past the horrific memories of the crash. Of Thursday’s verdicts, he said: “I don’t have any elation about it. I think it’s a sad thing all around.”

Michaela Thayer, who was working inside the preschool during the crash, said teachers tried not to talk much about the case in the weeks leading up to the trial.

“Most of the people there were really trying to put it behind them,” she said. “It’s a hard wound to heal, so you don’t want to dwell on it.”

She said she welcomed the guilty verdicts but added that it is unlikely to bring much relief to the victims’ relatives.

“I’m glad that he was guilty,” said Thayer, who is on maternity leave from work. But “there’s no way those parents are going to get those children back.”