Teen Loses Appeal in Cross-Burning Case

An appeals court Tuesday rejected the arguments of a Huntington Beach teenager who said he was too drunk to know what he was doing and that he had consent when he burned a cross in a Jewish couple’s yard two years ago.

Daniel Patrick Carr, 19, was sentenced to two years in prison last year after a jury convicted him of desecrating a religious symbol. The panel deadlocked on the more serious charge of arson, which would have made the act a hate crime.

According to testimony during the trial, Carr and two friends torched a 7-foot wooden cross on the lawn of David and Barbara Shostak on May 19, 1998. The friends, both minors, pleaded guilty and were sentenced to the California Youth Authority.

One of them testified that the Shostaks’ 15-year-old son suggested the trio burn the cross at his home because he was angry with his parents. Prosecutors did not charge the son because there was not enough evidence.

Carr argued on appeal that, because he had consent from the son, he was not guilty of the crime and that he was too drunk to understand the full scope of his actions.

But justices of the 4th District Court of Appeal disagreed. “If anyone, for any reason, could authorize a cross-burning, . . . citizens would not be safe from the terror this act induces,” they wrote. Moreover, they said, “excessive drinking does not excuse reckless behavior.”