Drunk Driver Is Sentenced to 12 Years in Motorist’s Death

A judge sentenced a nine-time convicted drunk driver Monday to 12 years in prison for killing a 22-year-old engineer in a traffic wreck on the Golden State Freeway, saying a prosecutor’s request to add new allegations punishable by life in prison came too late.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. John Asari said he and another prosecutor were ignorant of a 1997 law that punishes repeat drunken drivers who kill someone while driving under the influence with 15 years to life in prison.

As a result, they did not seek the more harsh punishment of the driver, Johnny Castro, until Monday’s sentencing hearing.

Asari asked the judge Monday to make Castro eligible for sentencing under the so-called Courtney’s Law, citing appeals court cases where prosecutors were allowed to amend complaints based on new evidence.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Meredith C. Taylor said in this case there was no new evidence. She ruled that adding the change now “would be a mistake,” and would violate Castro’s right to due process.

Because of credits for time already served, and good behavior in custody, Castro could be eligible for parole in three years.

Prosecutors charged Castro with second-degree murder and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in the death of Mahdad Koosh. Jurors convicted Castro last year of the manslaughter charge, and Judge Taylor said Monday that Castro is receiving the maximum possible penalty.

Castro’s defense had been that another man was behind the wheel and fled after the accident.

“He was a son that would make any parent proud,” Zhilla Koosh, the victim’s mother, told the judge during Monday’s hearing. “I constantly ask myself why should a life so full of promise have to be cut short by someone as evil as Castro, who has no decency in his own life.”

She listed her son’s achievements: hired by NASA in the hopes of becoming an astronaut, volunteer firefighter, commercial helicopter pilot and the survivor of devastating burns he suffered in a childhood accident. As she spoke, Dan Koosh held up poster-sized photographs of his son lying in a coma and the mangled remains of his Jeep.

They vowed to pressure authorities to appeal.

“The laws were made to be used,” Dan Koosh said after the hearing. “Just because the D.A. made a mistake doesn’t mean you don’t use the law.”

Castro, 38, said in court he had “heartfelt sorrow” for the family, then complained at length about being wrongfully convicted. Castro’s criminal record includes convictions for theft and receiving stolen property, as well as eight convictions for driving drunk between 1984 and 1990.

The parents of 15-year-old drunk-driving victim Courtney Meyer, for whom the law was named, said they are stunned by the prosecutors’ mistake.

“I thought that when it became law, that’s it, that when they’d open the books to it, they’d see it,” said Clay Meyer, who went to San Fernando Superior Court on Monday to support the Kooshes. “We worked so hard on it and to not see it used is very disappointing.”

Lawyers don’t always look up statutes when they file such common cases as drunk driving, said Roger Gunson, who oversees prosecutors in branch offices of the Los Angeles district attorney’s office.

“We file 60,000 cases per year,” Gunson said. “After you’ve filed so many cases, you are so aware of [the law] there’s no reason to go back to it” and read it.

But as a result of the Castro case, he said, all prosecutors will be reminded about Courtney’s Law.