Driver Drunk When He Killed 2 in Pacoima, Prosecutor Says

The blood-alcohol level of a 45-year-old transient was nearly triple the state standard for intoxication when he killed two Pacoima men by ramming them with his car at a Pacoima shopping center, a prosecutor said Friday.

Howard Lee Dunn had a blood-alcohol level of 0.28, according to a test given by Los Angeles police Wednesday evening, shortly after he was arrested on suspicion of murder in the deaths of the two men, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth Lee Barshop said.

Under California law, a person with a blood-alcohol level of 0.1 is considered intoxicated.

Wearing a blue shirt and jeans, Dunn quietly pleaded not guilty Friday in San Fernando Municipal Court to two counts of murder and related felony charges.

Dunn is charged in the deaths of Chare Holt, 52, and John Carter, 71, who were sitting against a parking lot wall behind Mercado del Valle market. Holt was killed instantly, and Carter died later at Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills, police said.

After hitting the two men, Dunn drove his Chrysler out of the parking lot, police said, and crashed head-on into a car carrying four adults and one child. No one in the car was seriously injured, police said.

Dunn was arrested by a security guard, who--along with firefighters--held back an angry crowd that tried to harm Dunn, police said. The crowd, police said, gathered after seeing Dunn drive his car into Holt and Carter and ram the other car.

Dunn also faces a felony count of harming a person by driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and another felony count of driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated.

Municipal Court Commissioner Charles L. Peven ordered Dunn held without bail at Los Angeles County Jail, despite a request for bail from Dunn’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender James Coady.

Barshop argued against bail, saying “this is a deliberate premeditated murder.”

Barshop said he may seek a special-circumstance allegation of killing more than one person, thereby qualifying Dunn for the death penalty or for a life sentence without possibility of parole.

Peven ordered Dunn to return Sept. 23, when a date will be scheduled for his preliminary hearing.