Woman recants murder-suicide allegation in Metrolink crash

A South Los Angeles woman told police Tuesday that her boyfriend tried to kill both of them when he drove their car into the path of a high-speed Metrolink train but later denied the allegation.

Michelle Wright, 23, told detectives from her hospital bed that in the minutes before Brandon Julius Funches, 21, also of South Los Angeles, drove onto the train tracks around noon Monday the couple had been arguing, said Lt. George Rock of the Los Angeles Police Department.

She said when they reached the crossing gate in Pacoima that, instead of stopping, Funches pulled around two other cars and parked on the tracks, placing the passenger side of the car in the path of the train, Rock said.

“Her impression was he intentionally stopped there so they would both be killed,” Rock said. “She could not recall if he said anything at that moment.... She was terrified the train was bearing down on her.”

Wright survived the crash but Funches was killed when he was hit with debris after he was ejected from the vehicle, police said. Wright told investigators she did not remember her boyfriend making any effort to get out of the 2005 Dodge Magnum before the collision.

Based on Wright’s statement and witness accounts, detectives have deemed the incident to be “an attempted murder-suicide,” Rock said.

But in a telephone interview with a Times reporter Tuesday afternoon, Wright said Funches never intended to kill her.

“He wasn’t trying to kill anybody,” she said. “He was trying to outrun the train.”

Wright said the couple had been rushing from one auto body shop to another looking for a car part. She said she had an 18-month old daughter waiting for her at home.

“I didn’t tell them that my future husband was trying to kill me,” she said. “He wouldn’t do that.” Wright, who also denied that the couple had been arguing at the time of the crash, said she was dazed when she talked to detectives. “I told them I didn’t remember nothing,” she said. “I told them he was trying to outrun the train.” Wright said she had known Funches for years and been romantically involved with him for three months. But during her interview with a reporter she seemed unaware of his death.

“Where is Brandon?” she asked at one point.

Several members of Funches’ family also dismissed police accounts of what happened.

“For them to say it was murder-suicide -- it was not right,” said Michael Ashford, Funches’ uncle. “That is not him. It was just bad judgment.”

Police said Wright survived because Funches might have pulled slightly askew onto the track, causing the train to hit the car’s rear quarter panel and passenger door and sending it spinning into the guardrail.

When the train hit the car again, Funches was ejected, Rock said. Wright, who remains hospitalized, suffered numerous cuts and a concussion.

richard.winton@latimes.com

sam.quinones@latimes.com