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Lesser conviction for driver in crash that killed royals
John Coté, Chronicle Staff Writer
Edith Delgado was convicted today of three misdemeanors i...
June 15, 2007 - The attorney for a Redwood City teenager charged with killing two members of the Tongan royal family and their driver in a freeway crash last year asked a jury to convict his client -- of a misdemeanor.
On Thursday, the panel did just that.
Edith Delgado, 19, turned to her lawyer, Randy Moore, and quietly wept in relief when the verdicts convicting her of three misdemeanor counts of vehicular manslaughter -- and acquitting her of felony charges that could have sent her to state prison -- were read in a packed Redwood City courtroom.
Afterward, her family hugged and wiped back tears. Her father leaned his head against the wall in San Mateo County Superior Court and cried.
"I'm just happy," Jose Delgado said. "I can't say anything more."
Edith Delgado had been facing up to eight years in state prison if convicted as charged of felony manslaughter in the July 5 deaths of Tongan Prince Tu'ipelehake, 55, his wife, Princess Kaimana Aleamotu'a Tuku'aho, 46, and their driver, East Palo Alto resident Vinisia Hefa, 36.
The three died when Delgado's Ford Mustang sideswiped the royal couple's Ford Explorer near Willow Road on Highway 101 in Menlo Park, causing the sport utility vehicle to roll over several times. Prosecutors said Delgado had been racing another car at speeds of at least 80 mph; her lawyer said there was no race and that she had been going slower than 80.
Delgado now faces no more than one year in county jail for each misdemeanor count when she is sentenced Aug. 24.
Prosecutors were researching whether state law allows the sentences for each count to run consecutively and haven't decided what sentence they will seek, Deputy District Attorney Aaron Fitzgerald said.
"The jury found Miss Delgado criminally responsible for the tragic deaths of three victims who were completely innocent in this matter," Fitzgerald said. "They convicted her of three very serious crimes."
If the law requires that Delgado serve her sentences concurrently, the maximum term would be one year and the former bank teller would face no additional jail time. She had remained behind bars for almost a year since the crash, unable to post $1 million in bail.
But after the verdicts were announced, Judge John Runde lowered Delgado's bail to $40,000. Her family posted bail and Delgado was released Thursday night.
"We're going to go get her out," her brother, Juan Delgado, 29, had said earlier in the day. "But this is not a win-win situation. It's a tragedy what happened... we'll always pray for the other people and their families and their loved ones."
The deaths triggered an outpouring of grief from the more than 8,000 Tongans living in the Bay Area. Prince Tu'ipelehake, hailed as the "People's Prince" for his political reform efforts, was visiting Tongan expatriates to gauge public opinion on the island-chain nation's political system when he was killed.
The prince's two sons, Osaiasi Tu'ipulotu, 34, and Vakafuhu Tu'ifua, 12, say they have forgiven Delgado and place the lion's share of the blame for their father's death on Ford Motor Co., maker of the Explorer, said Richard Alexander, an attorney representing the sons in a lawsuit against the automaker. They claim Ford knew the Explorer was prone to rollovers.
"The children have always felt Delgado should be forgiven," Alexander said. "I've heard that feeling expressed throughout the Tongan community."
Delgado, who was not hurt in the crash, did not dispute that she had sideswiped the Explorer. The criminal case hinged on whether her conduct amounted to gross negligence -- acting in a way that a reasonable person would know created a high risk of death or great bodily injury. The jury needed to make that finding to convict her of the felony charges.
The deliberations over 2 1/2 days were heated, with one juror storming into the bathroom and letting out a scream before returning, said Frank Johnson III, the jury foreman.
"It was very tense in there," Johnson, 43, said outside the courtroom after the verdicts were read. "I went home (Wednesday) thinking there was no way it was not going to be a hung jury."
Jurors initially split 7-5 for conviction on the felony charges, but when they stacked all the evidence in a side-by-side comparison, the panel decided that prosecutors had proved only that Delgado committed the misdemeanors, Johnson said.
Prosecutors argued Delgado had a pattern of driving dangerously, saying she had been warned and suspended by officials at the continuation high school she attended because of her driving.
Fitzgerald maintained that Delgado had been racing a Cadillac Escalade in her Ford Mustang, weaving recklessly through traffic at high speed, when she sideswiped the Explorer.
"She was flying. Her driving was obscene," Fitzgerald told jurors in his closing argument. "She was using whatever lane she wanted. It was her playground."
Moore took aim at the assertion that officials at Redwood High School had warned Delgado about her driving, noting that the principal couldn't remember actually meeting with the teenager and that a teacher disputed that Delgado had "peeled out" in the school parking lot.
Moore also pointed out that the car Delgado allegedly had been racing was never found, and a defense accident reconstruction expert put Delgado's speed at about 70 mph.
Moore could barely contain his emotions when Delgado's father hugged him as they left the courtroom.
"Don't make me cry," Moore said before declaring, "God bless the jury system, and God bless this jury."
This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Tongan royals' heirs accuse Ford of marketing unsafe SUV
John Coté, Chronicle Staff Writer
The Ford Explorer that was carrying the Tongan royal coup... A red Ford Explorer flipped several times before stopping...
June 5, 2007 - REDWOOD CITY -- The sons of a Tongan prince Killed on Highway 101 in Menlo Park last year when the Ford Explorer they were riding in flipped have sued Ford Motor Co., claiming the company knew the vehicle was unsafe.
The lawsuit comes as Redwood City teen Edith Delgado is on trial in San Mateo County Superior Court for three counts of vehicular manslaughter in the deaths of Tongan Prince Tu'ipelehake, 55, his wife, Princess Kaimana Aleamotu'a Tuku'aho, 46, and their driver, East Palo Alto resident Vinisia Hefa, 36.
Authorities say Delgado, 19, was speeding and weaving through traffic in an apparent race with a Cadillac Escalade when her Ford Mustang sideswiped the sport utility vehicle carrying the Tongan royal couple on July 5.
Hefa lost control of the Explorer, which flipped several times, killing all three occupants. Delgado and her passenger were uninjured.
Delgado faces up to eight years in prison if convicted.
The lawsuit, filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court, contends that although "Delgado contributed to the crash events with an improper lane change, she did not kill the occupants in the 1998 Ford Explorer."
The lawsuit says that Ford marketed the Explorer as a "forgiving, safe and stable" vehicle while knowing the sport utility vehicle was prone to rollovers, had an unsafe roof design and "was not equipped to properly handle emergency maneuvers at interstate highway speeds."
Had the prince "been a passenger in a Honda, a Toyota, or any other standard passenger car, even a Ford Mustang, it would not have rolled and plaintiffs' father and the two additional occupants of the Explorer would not have died," the lawsuit filed by San Jose attorney Richard Alexander contends.
Randy Moore, Delgado's attorney in her criminal trial, said legal precedent essentially prohibits him from raising the safety of the Explorer as a defense because Delgado acknowledges that her actions -- sideswiping the Explorer -- set into motion the chain of events that led to the deaths.
But Moore contends that what Delgado did was not gross negligence -- the conduct that jurors must find to convict her of the three felony counts of vehicular manslaughter. Instead, Moore maintains that Delgado made an unsafe lane change and should only be found guilty of a misdemeanor.
Ford has faced dozens of lawsuits regarding the safety of the Explorer in recent years. Of the 32 cases involving personal injury claims that went to trial, juries ruled in favor of Ford on 27 of them, Ford spokeswoman Kristen Kinley said.
Kinley said she had not seen the lawsuit involving the Tongan royal couple and could not comment on it specifically, but she defended the Explorer as "a very safe vehicle."
"There have been numerous testings and evaluations done by third parties that have shown the Explorer, with regard to handling and stability, is as safe or safer than vehicles in the same category," Kinley said.
The lawsuit brought by the prince's sons, Vakafuhu Tu'ifua, 12, and Osaiasi Tu'ipulotu, 34, also names Hefa's estate; John Hiss III, Hefa's employer and the owner of the Explorer; Delgado; and her father, Jose L. Delgado, the registered owner of the Mustang she was driving.
E-mail John Coté at jcote@sfchronicle.com.
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