WOODLAND — What did Armando Gonzalez Jr. know when he slid behind the wheel of his car on Feb. 1, 2014?
Was it, as Yolo County prosecutors contend, the awareness that his epilepsy made him a danger to other drivers, as shown by his history of seizure-related accidents that occurred despite the medications he regularly took?
Or were the opinions of others on Gonzalez’s mind, specifically the Department of Motor Vehicles that granted him a valid license to drive and the neurologist who opined that he posed no more of a risk than anyone else on the road?
Those are the questions that went before a jury in Yolo Superior Court on Thursday, following Gonzalez’s week-long trial in connection with the East Davis collision that killed 85-year-old Ruth “Darlene” Morales of Vacaville.
Gonzalez, 40, of Woodland, has pleaded not guilty to charges including second-degree murder, gross vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run causing death or serious bodily injury.
“This is a case of Russian roulette, but instead of a gun, the defendant had a car,” Deputy District Attorney Amanda Zambor told the seven-woman, five-man jury during closing arguments in Judge Paul K. Richardson’s courtroom. “The bullet’s going to come out eventually. Somebody was going to die.”
Zambor argued that Gonzalez made the deliberate choice to drive his car that day, despite having just experienced a pair of minor seizures at his Swift Dodge workplace, and through that action he demonstrated the implied malice necessary to prove second-degree murder.
Defense attorney Clemente Jimenez disagreed, accusing prosecutors of putting Gonzalez’s driving history “under a microscope” and focusing on his prior crashes, rather than his day-to-day behaviors.
“How many times did he get in his car without a problem? Driving is an inherently dangerous activity — there are all manner of things that can happen on any given day,” Jimenez told the jury in arguing for accidental homicide. Morales’ death “is unfortunate. It was a tragedy. No one is disputing that.”
Both the prosecution and defense agree that Gonzalez, diagnosed with epilepsy since childhood, suffered a seizure that afternoon while driving home from work, rear-ending Morales’ vehicle at an estimated 80 mph on westbound East Covell Boulevard at Baywood Lane.
The impact sent Morales’ car veering off the roadway, where it struck a metal pole with enough force to knock it down before spinning halfway around and coming to rest with its driver’s side wrapped around a tree.
Authorities said Gonzalez’s car then left the scene of the crash, continuing westbound until it rear-ended a second vehicle waiting at the traffic light at Pole Line Road. That collision caused minor injuries to a mother and her 12-year-old daughter.
Morales, a Vacaville resident who had just visited her husband of more than 60 years at a local skilled-nursing facility, died a short time later of blunt-force and internal injuries. Police arrested Gonzalez at the scene.
Doctors who had treated Gonzalez over the years testified at trial that while he was diligent about taking his epilepsy medications, he also tended to suffer “breakthrough” seizures brought on by stress or sleep deprivation.
Prosecutors alleged — and Gonzalez denied — that the defendant misled his doctors and the DMV about the frequency of his seizures in order to keep his driver’s license.
Jimenez, the defense attorney, also has disputed the hit-and-run charges, saying his client was still in the “throes of a seizure” when his car left the scene did not have the presence of mind to stop and render aid to the injured Morales.
But Zambor noted in her rebuttal argument that Gonzalez somehow managed to keep traveling in a straight line for a half mile before causing the second crash, from which he also allegedly tried to flee “because he’s scared. He knows what he did.”
The jury received the case shortly before 4 p.m. Thursday. Their deliberations were expected to resume this morning.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene