BMW a weapon or way to escape?

With a splash of soda, a night on the town escalated into a nightmare for Morteza Bakhtiari and John Royston, two strangers whose lives collided one January evening outside a popular south Orange County restaurant.

After the beverage was tossed into his car, a seething Bakhtiari aimed his BMW at Royston and critically wounded him before fleeing, a prosecutor said Monday during closing arguments of a high-profile attempted-murder trial.

“You don’t think it’s mere happenstance that the person who [throws the soda] ends up near dead on the pavement that night, do you?” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Scott Simmons as he highlighted evidence that he said showed Bakhtiari had a clear motive.

Not so, says Bakhtiari and his defense attorney, Joseph G. Cavallo. They argue it was nothing but an accident, maintaining that a bellicose Royston, emboldened by alcohol after a night of drinking with his buddies, picked a fight with Bakhtiari and then stepped in the path of his car as Bakhtiari tried to drive away from a dangerous confrontation.

In the hard-hitting, staccato-like style that has become his trademark, Cavallo attacked the credibility of the victim’s friends and other witnesses, arguing that their judgment was blurred by alcohol and their interest in protecting Royston, a beefy, 6-foot football coach whom Cavallo characterized as the aggressor that night.

“If he wasn’t drunk ... if he wasn’t belligerent, this wouldn’t have happened,” Cavallo said. “What gall does it take to take a soda and toss it in a vehicle at ... people you don’t know? That takes guts.... The reason he stepped out is because he had unfinished business.”

For the last three weeks, the two sides have been seeking to crystallize their conflicting versions of what happened that January 2006 evening in the parking lot of an Aliso Viejo strip mall, outside Opah Restaurant & Bar, where both men had been socializing earlier with groups of friends.

The case was handed to the jury Monday.

Bakhtiari, 27, of Costa Mesa has been held on $1-million bond since his arrest days after the incident. He could face up to life in prison if convicted of attempted murder with enhancements for premeditation and deliberation.

He is also charged with assaulting Royston and one of his friends with a deadly weapon -- his car -- felony hit and run, and a misdemeanor count of filing a false police report by later reporting his car stolen.

Several things in the case are not in dispute: Royston was intoxicated with a blood-alcohol level of 0.14%, the BMW was traveling between 18 and 21 mph when he was struck, and Bakhtiari fled the scene and later made up a story about his car being stolen.

Royston, 43, was one of the first witnesses to take the stand during the trial before Superior Court Judge Francisco P. Briseno. Disabled by severe brain trauma, Royston said he could not remember what happened before he was struck by the BMW.

Bakhtiari’s passenger in the BMW, Matthew Rice, testified for the prosecution, saying his friend was driving through the parking lot recklessly, heading back to Opah to get a woman’s phone number. He said Royston and his friends yelled at them, and Royston tossed a cup of soda and ice at the car.

As Bakhtiari sped off, Rice said, he hit a parked Mercedes but kept driving. He said Bakhtiari decided to turn around and head back, telling him that the men had “messed up” his car and now he was going to “mess them up.”

Rice testified that Royston’s mouth was open and his arms extended when he was struck, as if motioning for Bakhtiari to slow down.

“This is the defendant’s friend,” the prosecutor reminded jurors Monday. “Mr. Rice is put in a very difficult position. He comes forward, and he did the right thing.”

But Cavallo made Rice’s credibility an issue, getting him to admit that he smokes marijuana regularly and that he was convicted of petty theft as a juvenile. He also called one of Rice’s friends, who testified that Rice told him he was intoxicated that night.

Then there was Bakhtiari’s version of events. He said Royston tried to start a fight with him, yelled humiliating, obscenity-laced insults through the window and threatened to kill him. He said as he tried to leave the parking lot, Royston tossed the soda, which blinded him momentarily and caused him to hit the Mercedes.

He said he told Rice he was “going to make sure they pay for this,” meaning that he wanted them to pick up the cost of the damage to his BMW, since he didn’t have insurance. He said he turned around to get their contact information.

Bakhtiari said the men came at him again. He acknowledged that he drove close to the men but said he never intended to hurt anyone and, in fact, he was unaware he’d hit anyone until Rice told him as they drove from the parking lot. He said he decided not to stop and later reported his car stolen because he didn’t want to get in trouble for something he didn’t think was his fault.

“That was the worst thing I could’ve done,” Bakhtiari said of the false police report under cross-examination. “Because everyone makes me out to be a crazy murderer. And I’m not.”

christine.hanley@latimes.com