Driver of Death Car Gets 25 Years to Life for Riding Over Man

Dallas Keith Carter, 19, shook in his chair Friday as a Superior Court judge sentenced him to 25 years to life in prison for killing a young man by driving his car over him three times.

Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan, who noted that the victim’s bones could be heard to crack on the pass over the body, discounted Carter’s testimony that he later thought he might have run over a speed bump.

“We all know speed bumps don’t make a sound like ‘crack,’ ” the judge said in a Santa Ana courtroom.

Carter, a resident of Costa Mesa, was convicted by a jury two months ago of first-degree murder in the May 15, 1988, death of 26-year-old Javier G. Sarabia of Garden Grove. The victim had been riding home on a motorcycle with his brother, Alex, from a family barbecue when Carter and two friends began tailgating them, then chased them and confronted them not far from their home.

Witnesses Described Action

After a scuffle, in which Sarabia was knocked to the ground, Carter and his two companions jumped into their car and drove toward him. Other witnesses in the area said Carter made a U-turn with the car and ran over Sarabia at least three times.

Earlier in the evening, the three had harassed two other people and Carter had even fired a gun in what Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeoffrey L. Robinson described as “a night of random assault just for the heck of it.”

In an emotional statement to the court, the victim’s father, Hector Sarabia, exclaimed in tears: “Why my son? I ask myself a thousand times, why my boy?”

Sarabia said he did not want revenge. “We just want society to be free of these types of people. For me, he (Carter) doesn’t have no name. He’s just a criminal.”

Sarabia’s emotion-charged statement became so loud that he finished by apologizing: “I’m sorry for disturbing the peace of this court.”

Carter’s lawyers had claimed that Carter was too drunk to form an intent to commit first-degree murder, but Judge Ryan disagreed.

‘Forgetful When Helpful’

During testimony by Carter, the judge said, the defendant was “crystal clear” about certain events that night, “but he was forgetful when it was helpful to him.”

Carter’s attorneys also asked that Carter’s sentence be reduced from the standard 25-year-to-life sentence for first-degree murder because the two other men with him that night had served just seven months in jail.

The two men in the car with Carter--Ernest J. Busto, now 21, of Garden Grove, and Sergio Sanchez, now 19, of Santa Ana--both pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of assault with a deadly weapon. They were placed on probation with credit given them for the time they already had served in jail.

Deputy Public Defender Roger B. Alexander pointed to court testimony that someone in the car other than Carter was heard yelling “hit him again.”

The judge responded that while their sentences did not compare to Carter’s, 25 years was not too severe considering what Carter did to the victim.

“This is a very heavy case,” the judge said.

Alexander noted Carter’s youth in asking for the sentence reduction. He added that Carter was an immature young man, not someone with a criminal past.

But prosecutor Robinson countered by noting what he considered Carter’s “flippant . . . I don’t give a rip” attitude on the witness stand.

“Come hell or high water, whoever got in his way that night was going to pay,” Robinson argued.