Steven Hendrix’s own lawyers acknowledged he committed a crime when he caused a fatal high-speed collision on Second Street in Davis.
A Yolo County jury agreed, convicting him Tuesday of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence of drugs, causing injury.
But the eight-man, four-woman panel stopped short of calling crash victim Cynthia Ann Jonasen’s death a case of second-degree murder, hanging 11-1 in favor of a not-guilty verdict. Yolo Superior Court Judge Paul Richardson declared a mistrial on that charge after finding the jury “hopelessly deadlocked.”
Steven Hendrix was convicted Tuesday of manslaughter and DUI in the death of Cynthia Ann Jonasen on Feb. 24, 2016. Sue Cockrell/Enterprise photo
The jury foreman later told Richardson the vote initially had been 8-4 for acquittal and eventually shifted to just the single holdout.
Hendrix, 33, showed no visible reaction upon hearing the verdicts, which also convicted him of four counts of child endangerment in connection with the Feb. 24, 2016, wreck that killed Jonasen, 71, and injured six other people in his own vehicle.
Jurors were scheduled to return to court today to hear further evidence regarding several charging enhancements related to Hendrix’s 2011 felony burglary conviction. If upheld, he faces up to 42 years in state prison.
That is, unless the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office successfully retries Hendrix on the second-degree murder charge, which carries a potential life sentence. No decision had been made as of this morning.
Prosecutors pursued that count under the so-called “implied malice” theory — that Hendrix knew his reckless driving behavior was dangerous to human life, and he acted with conscious disregard to that fact.
Hendrix already is serving a seven-year, eight-month prison term for a domestic violence conviction that occurred five days before the fatal crash, while he was still free on bail awaiting sentencing. The victim in that case, Hendrix’s then-girlfriend Beshia Shoate, had been riding in the vehicle along with her sister and the women’s four young children.
According to trial testimony, Hendrix was late delivering the women and kids for check-in at a Davis homeless shelter that evening and sped down Second Street to make up for lost time. His westbound Ford SUV broadsided Jonasen’s Honda Accord as she made a left turn from Cantrill Drive onto Second Street.
Jonasen, a former Yolo County probation officer, died nearly instantly at the scene from what coroner’s officials called “internal decapitation” — the severing of her spinal cord from the violent crash impact.
A collision reconstruction expert put Hendrix’s speed at 84 mph in the seconds before the collision and 77 mph upon impact — well above the posted speed limit of 45 mph on that street. Toxicology testing revealed both marijuana and methamphetamine in his bloodstream.
Prior to the crash, Deputy District Attorney Amanda Zambor said, Hendrix failed to heed repeated warnings that he was driving much too fast — his tailgating of another driver he later described to police as “driving like Miss Daisy,” the illegal passing of two other cars, a near-collision with a cyclist in a bike lane and, finally, a plea from a 12-year-old girl inside his own vehicle to “please slow down.”
“What is his response? He turns and he shrugs, like it doesn’t matter,” Zambor told jurors during her closing argument in the month-long trial last week. “He was doing exactly what he wanted to do, with no regard for anybody else on the road.”
Even Hendrix’s public defenders conceded he was driving too fast — offering as part of their case a photograph of the Ford’s speedometer frozen at 72 mph, still nearly 30 mph over the speed limit — but contend that prosecutors failed to prove he acted with malice, implied or otherwise.
“There’s no doubt Steven Hendrix is a flawed man,” Deputy Public Defender Teal Dixon said in her closing remarks, citing her client’s struggles with homelessness and other troubles. The crash, she added, “was an absolute tragedy, but it wasn’t murder.”
Dixon also challenged allegations that Hendrix was under the influence when the crash occurred. She admitted his pot use that morning but attributed the presence of meth in his system from use a few days earlier.
Other signs of intoxication — including red, watery eyes and an unsteady gait — stemmed from his despair over Jonasen’s death and disorientation from the collision, she said. The jury, however, found otherwise.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene