HOLLISTER
– A San Benito County jury took about 90 minutes to find Robert
Orabuena guilty of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter Friday.
HOLLISTER – A San Benito County jury took about 90 minutes to find Robert Orabuena guilty of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter Friday.
Orabuena, 41, of Gilroy was found to be partially at fault for the July 4 accident that ended with the death of Joseph Judnick, 48, of Salinas.
According to the way the law is written, if a defendant is found to be even partially at fault for causing a vehicle accident in which someone died, he is considered guilty of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.
“We are satisfied with the verdict, under the circumstances,” San Benito County District Attorney John Sarsfield said. “It’s a tragedy that Mr. Judnick was killed.”
Nevertheless, Sarsfield applauded the efforts of his deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case.
“Denny Wei did a good job. It was a difficult case, but he put in a lot of hard work,” Sarsfield said.
Orabuena’s defense attorney, Arthur Cantu, said he respects the jury’s decision, although he does not necessarily agree with it.
“It’s really a difficult charge to defeat because even if you are found partially at fault, it’s sufficient to find someone guilty of the misdemeanor charge,” Cantu said.
But Cantu said the defense team had already won two major victories in court when they convinced the judge to dismiss the much more serious felony charges originally filed against Orabuena.
In July, Sarsfield charged Orabuena with second-degree murder and felony vehicular manslaughter. If Orabuena had been convicted of those charges, he could have been sentenced to state prison for 25 years to life.
Cantu proved in court that Orabuena was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, as some crash investigators initially alleged he was. And with witness statements that Orabuena was not driving recklessly at the time of the crash, the defense took the wind out of most of the prosecution’s case.
All prosecutors were left with were the two misdemeanor charges they took into court Nov. 4.
In Friday’s verdict, the jury found Orabuena not guilty of a second misdemeanor charge – reckless driving resulting in great bodily injury.
“I’m always proud to be a member of the justice system and deliver the facts to help the jury reach a verdict,” Cantu said. “Either it’s in our favor or against us, but all we asked for was a fair hearing.”
As it stands now, Orabuena could be sentenced to a maximum of one year in jail.
Even Orabuena’s current misdemeanor conviction could be in doubt, however, because Cantu said he is going to petition the court to declare last week’s proceedings a mistrial. If granted, it would mean the misdemeanor conviction would be thrown out and prosecutors would have the option of retrying the case or dismissing the charges.
“We’re happy about the verdict,” Judnick’s half-brother, Jeff Strametz, of Gilroy, said this morning. “It brings a slight sense of closure, but nothing’s going to bring my brother back. We still have to go through every day remembering the good times, and we still get to go through the holidays without him, and that’s not going to be good times.”
The charges against Orabuena stem from a crash on Fairview Road, near the Spring Grove Road intersection.
The 4:25 p.m. accident happened when Judnick was driving a 2002 Harley-Davidson V-Rod southbound on Fairview Road at an unknown rate of speed, the California Highway Patrol reported.
As Judnick approached the Spring Grove Road intersection, a 1987 Dodge minivan driven by Orabuena made a left turn directly in front of Judnick, the CHP said. Orabuena told officers he could see the motorcycle approaching about 300 feet away.
Judnick slammed on his brakes in an attempt to avoid the minivan but skidded forward and struck the side of it, the CHP said.
“Orabuena has a long and detailed history of making bad choices,” Strametz said. “And if anybody still believes he’s innocent, look across the table at the person you love … and picture them dying a very terrible death because of a man’s inability to choose to wait two seconds to turn left.
“When a person makes a left-hand turn into oncoming traffic, he has to make a choice whether it’s safe or not. … He stated he saw the motorcycle coming. … In my mind, he knew it was the motorcycle or him. He knew there was a very real chance that there would be an accident, and he knew he wouldn’t get hurt.
“If he had pulled all the way up to the driveway, stopped and waited two seconds, none of this would have happened. My brother wouldn’t have died; he wouldn’t be in jail.”
Strametz thanked the DA’s office “for not getting drug into all the nasty stuff that’s been in the paper and not being tempted by the defense’s attempts to have a trial in the papers. At least they respected the family.”
Cantu was appointed by the court to represent Orabuena after the court disqualified his former attorney, Greg LaForge, for a possible conflict of interest.
LaForge was originally appointed by the court to represent Orabuena because Orabuena could not get an attorney on his own.
Staff Writer Peter Crowley contributed to this story.
