Morgan Hill resident Rita Campos, who insisted that she safely
followed traffic laws when attempting to make the left turn that
killed a Gilroy cyclist, was found guilty of vehicular manslaughter
Monday.
Morgan Hill resident Rita Campos, who insisted that she safely followed traffic laws when attempting to make the left turn that killed a Gilroy cyclist, was found guilty of vehicular manslaughter Monday.
Campos, 61, was visibly shaken by the verdict as she paced the hallway outside the courtroom, crying at the conclusion of the trial, which occupied two days of witness testimony and statements.
Relatives of Bruce Finch, the 58-year-old cyclist who died in the Oct. 5, 2008, collision that led to the trial, cried and hugged each other in the courtroom following the verdict.
The jury went into deliberation Monday morning, following Superior Court Judge Ronald Toff’s instructions on how to evaluate the charge. They returned a verdict less than two hours later, even with more than 40 pieces of evidence to consider.
Based on the accident investigation and testimony of a California Highway Patrol officer, Campos was negligent at the intersection of Uvas and Little Uvas roads when she tried to turn northbound, Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Marcia Wallis told the jury Friday. She said that Campos did not stop before the stop sign at Little Uvas Road, she did not look both ways before entering the intersection, and she failed to yield the right-of-way to Finch, who was riding his Trek bicycle south on Uvas.
He was pronounced dead at the accident scene, moments after colliding with the left front end of Campos’ green Honda Civic and being ejected into the middle of Uvas Road.
“I’m happy there’s closure for the Finch family,” Wallis said Monday.
Campos, who took the witness stand Friday, repeatedly testified that she stopped at the intersection before proceeding and did not move her car from where it was parked – several feet behind the edge of Uvas Road – when police and other witnesses arrived to the scene shortly after the accident.
As she was slowly inching forward after she stopped her vehicle to gain a clear view to her right, she heard the impact with Finch and exited the vehicle to see what happened and to try to help the fallen cyclist, Campos testified.
However, CHP officer Katherine Tritenbach, an expert witness who led the accident investigation, said based on a reenactment of the collision, Campos’ previous statements, the location of Finch’s body when police arrived and the pattern of damage to Campos’ vehicle resulting from the crash, the driver must have moved her car before anyone else showed up. The investigation concluded Campos’ car was likely occupying the southbound lane on Uvas Road, in the midst of the northbound turn, when the collision happened.
The jury agreed Campos’ car could not have been where she said it was when Finch hit it, according to juror Gary Genest.
“She failed to make sure there was no traffic coming from the left,” Genest said. “It was an accident, but she wasn’t careful enough.”
Jury foreman Wayne Dewey said he was pleased with the 12 jurors’ ability to quickly agree on a verdict, though he said it seemed as though they deliberated much longer than they did due to the stack of photographs of the scene presented as evidence.
“I’m grateful that everybody felt the same way,” Dewey said. “There wasn’t any real emotion involved, and I’m grateful for that.”
Finch’s relatives, who sat in the front row of the courtroom throughout the trial, did not wish to comment on the verdict.
Campos’ attorney, Richard Pointer, told the jury last week that the circumstantial evidence presented at trial did not definitively conclude that her car could have been in only one specific location when it impacted with Finch and his bicycle. The defendant proceeded safely and cautiously, obeying traffic laws when she attempted to turn onto Uvas Road, he said.
“We’re disappointed, obviously,” Pointer said Monday.
A friend and fellow cyclist of Finch’s said the trial and verdict are a reminder that the law maintains that cyclists, despite being more vulnerable than cars, are just as welcome on the roads as motorists.
“We’re glad it’s over, and I think the jury made the right decision,” said Todd Hamor, of San Jose, who sat through the entirety of the trial, and has ridden numerous times the Uvas Road route where Finch died. “A precedent is getting set, and cyclists and pedestrians are not going away. I hope everybody can figure out how to use the road together.”
Campos’ sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 12. The maximum sentence for misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence is one year in jail.
