Norcal folks-Vellanoweth found guilty in crash that killed four

[AlCzervik]

I know many of you may have been following this case as i have been, everyday the defense throwing some new theory against the wall to see what would stick and it looks like the jury didn't buy any of it---good.

Article from the sacbee below.

The gubernatorial appointments, the political connections, the 30-year history as a top-level California bureaucrat – none of it helped Roberto P. Vellanoweth on Thursday when he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.

An eight-man, four-woman jury found the longtime Sacramento insider and civic-minded activist guilty of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and of two other drunken driving counts.

It took the jury only two hours and 33 minutes to arrive at the verdict in a case that gripped the city during the three-week trial like few before it in recent years.

"I can't recall a case of vehicular manslaughter in the last 20 years or more that has attracted the local public attention that this one has," said Assistant District Attorney Albert Locher.

In his closing arguments, Locher pounded Vellanoweth as a liar, a drunkard and, on March 26, 2007, a killer when he got behind the wheel of his Jeep Grand Cherokee with a blood-alcohol concentration later measured at 0.16 percent – twice the legal limit.

"I think the number of individuals who were killed, the fact that children were killed, the fact that we have a man who has a long life with no record, and then makes such a bad decision and winds up with so many people killed in one day – I think all of those come together to make it a case that just captures the public's eye," the prosecutor said.

Vellanoweth, when it was over, turned and nodded to his crying family members who filled three rows of seats in Department 19 of Sacramento Superior Court.

Then the bailiffs cuffed him and took him to jail, out back, through Judge Patrick Marlette's chambers.

Defense attorney Christopher Wing had asked the judge to let Vellanoweth remain free on the $250,000 bail that has kept him out of lockup for the past 16 months.

Marlette had none of it.

"You've been found guilty of killing four people," Marlette told Vellanoweth. "From the beginning of this case, you have attempted to avoid accepting responsibility for your actions. … I cannot say I have confidence you will willingly return."

Sentencing is set for Aug. 12.

more at link
http://www.sacbee.com/101/v-print/story/1075684.html