Wrong-Way Collision Murder Trial : Peers Say Driver Blacked Out Before

Two months before his involvement in a wrong-way traffic collision that killed four people, a Lancaster man told friends that he blacked out on his way home from a party at which he had been drinking and woke up in his parked car, facing oncoming traffic, according to testimony Thursday.

Daniel E. Murray, who is being tried on charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter and felony drunk driving in the Dec. 11, 1986, Ventura Freeway accident, attended a party on Oct. 10 of that year for a co-worker who lost his Northrop Corp. job in Hawthorne, witnesses said.

Richard Fordiani, testifying at Murray’s trial in Van Nuys Superior Court, said that he, Murray and two or three others drank between 15 and 20 pitchers of beer at the party, which lasted two or three hours at a bar near Inglewood.

Murray left the party about 6 p.m. and, after going to a fast-food restaurant across the street, left for his Lancaster home, Fordiani testified.

But in a conversation the following week, Fordiani said that Murray told him he woke up in his car the night of the party. “He said he thought it was on the wrong side” of the road in Malibu Canyon, Fordiani testified. “He said he didn’t remember how he got there.

Charles F. Scott, another Northrop employee, said he had a similar conversation with Murray after the Oct. 10 party. He testified that Murray told him his car was parked on the shoulder of Malibu Canyon Road, facing against traffic.

“He said he just blacked out,” Scott testified.

Proper Side

Outside the courtroom, during a break in the proceedings, defense attorney Charles R. English said Murray indicated that his car was parked on the proper side of the road, but it was pointed south, the opposite direction of his Lancaster home.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Phillip H. Rabichow, who is prosecuting the case against Murray, said he introduced the testimony from Fordiani and Scott to show that Murray knew it was dangerous to drink and drive but disregarded the risk two months later when he got behind the wheel after consuming beer, then drove the wrong way on the Ventura Freeway for three miles before colliding head-on with a car driven by Suzanne Brown, 37.

Killed in the accident were Brown, her son Jonah Brown, 7; her father, Jack Rawls, 69, and Dia Rae Rounds, 16, all of Ventura.

Suzanne Brown’s son, Jamaal Brown, now 18, came upon the crash scene while riding home on a bus with fellow members of the Buena High School basketball team.

Jamaal’s family and Rounds, his girlfriend, had attended the team’s game in Beverly Hills earlier that night. They were on their way home when the accident occurred.

Rabichow must demonstrate that Murray acted with malice for a jury to find him guilty of murder.

Murray, 27, faces a maximum of 61 years to life in prison if he is convicted.