Defense attorney says convicted drunk driver not guilty of murder in Nick Adenhart crash

Andrew Thomas Gallo may be responsible for the crash that killed Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two friends, but he is not guilty of murder, his attorney said Tuesday in opening statements at his trial.

“He did it, and he has to live with that for the rest of his life,” said defense attorney Jacqueline Goodman. “But Andrew Gallo is not a murderer.”

In her first statements to jurors in a Santa Ana courtroom, Goodman painted Gallo as a young, recovering alcoholic who had tried twice before to overcome his addiction. At 18, he was convicted of driving under the influence and was on probation three years later, at the time of the fatal crash.

According to prosecutors, Gallo had a blood-alcohol level of at least 0.19% — more than twice the legal limit — when he ran a red light at a Fullerton intersection early on April 9, 2009, colliding with a vehicle and killing Adenhart, 22; driver Courtney Stewart, 20; and Henry Pearson, 25.

A fourth passenger, Jon Wilhite, 25, was critically injured and has made a slow recovery.

In her opening statement, Orange County prosecutor Susan Price told jurors that Gallo had been warned multiple times not to drink and drive because it could lead to someone’s injury or death. He disregarded those warnings on the night of April 8, 2009, she said.

“This case is about an evening of pure indulgence and a night of total disregard,” Price said.

She showed video of Gallo and his stepbrother drinking at a West Covina bikini bar on the night of the crash.

“See the defendant drink beer after beer after beer, shot after shot after shot,” Price told the jury while Gallo, dressed neatly in a blue shirt and thick black glasses, looked on.

“This is not someone who had never been warned about the dangers of drinking and driving,” Price said. “A court told him … a teacher told him. His family told him. He disregarded all of that.”

Gallo’s attorney told jurors her client never intended to drink and drive. In the days and months leading to the crash, Gallo always had a designated driver, she said. It was his designated driver, stepbrother Raymond Rivera, who encouraged him to drink before the crash, she said.

“They just drink and drink and drink too much,” Goodman said, to the point that Gallo blacked out and ended up in Fullerton, where “neither Andrew nor his brother have any connection or ties or knowledge of why they were there.”

Despite his actions, Goodman said, Gallo never meant to kill anyone.

“What happened on that night, when all those kids met in that intersection … was something that captured the heart of Orange County,” she said. But, Goodman added, “We don’t have a murder.”

The crash occurred just hours after Adenhart had made his first start of the season for the Angels, throwing six scoreless innings.

Although Adenhart was a little-known rookie pitcher in life, the story of his death resonated strongly with both baseball fans and those who never followed the game.

Stewart, a cheerleader at Cal State Fullerton; Pearson, a law student who also was building a career as a sports agent; and Wilhite, who played college baseball at Cal State Fullerton, all had watched Adenhart’s debut and were headed together to a night club when the crash occurred.

Wilhite and the families of the other victims were eager for the trial to start, said Mike Fell, an attorney who represents them and who fought in court to get the trial underway quickly.

“This trial,” he said, is about “the devastation these families have had to endure.”

paloma.esquivel@latimes.com