Probation Report Urges Life Sentence for Rest-Stop Gunman : Crime: Officials call Eric Hazelgrove a threat to society because of the escalating seriousness of his offenses. Sentencing is delayed by defense attorney.

San Diego County probation authorities believe Eric Hazelgrove, convicted of the attempted murder of a black lunch-wagon vendor at the notorious Aliso Creek rest stop on Interstate 5, is a threat to society because of the 30-year-old man’s unprovoked attacks and the escalating seriousness of his crimes.

“This defendant cannot successfully assimilate into society. According to all reports, he is mentally competent but experiences antisocial behavior. As such, he should be incarcerated for a substantial amount of time. Put simply, the defendant is dangerous,” according to a probation officer who recommended life imprisonment for Hazelgrove.

The recommendation is contained in a probation report filed as part of Hazelgrove’s sentencing, which had been set for Monday but was postponed until July 31. The Times obtained a copy of the report, which will be released after sentencing.

The sentencing was delayed at the request of Hazelgrove’s attorney, Barbara McDonald, who is seeking further psychiatric examination of her client to explain his bizarre attack on 56-year-old Lee Harrell last August.

The probation report says that Hazelgrove’s attack on Harrell was the latest in “an escalating series of violence” committed by the San Diego native.

Attempts by a probation official to interview Hazelgrove, who is being held in County Jail at Vista on $1-million bail, were described in the report as “the most difficult this probation officer has conducted” because Hazelgrove “attempted to use language that is normally associated with the intelligentsia,” but which “came out broken and nonsensical.”

Hazelgrove was found guilty of shooting Harrell four times on Aug. 8. The rest-stop vendor testified that Hazelgrove, whom he had never met, walked toward him and shot him. Hazelgrove shot Harrell three times, then followed him behind the lunch wagon as the vendor attempted to escape, and shot him again as he lay on the ground trying to crawl to safety, Harrell testified during the trial.

The report says Hazelgrove refused to release his medical records to investigators and denied that he had ever stopped at the Aliso Creek rest area.

He admitted, however, that he had led police on a wild chase north on I-5, doubling back on off-ramps and driving the wrong way on several busy Orange County highways, and that he was finally arrested after his girlfriend snatched the keys from his truck’s ignition.

The probation report also notes that “there is a possibility that the offense can be classified as a hate crime directed at the victim’s (Harrell’s) race.”

Deputy County Dist. Atty. Greg Walden, who prosecuted Hazelgrove, testified during the trial that he did not charge Hazelgrove with a hate crime because “the law on hate crimes was not sufficiently specific at the time.”

While jailed for Harrell’s shooting, Hazelgrove has attacked one black inmate and was found with steel bars from his jail cell bunk bed that he had sharpened into lethal weapons, the report says.

The day before the shooting, Hazelgrove had yelled a racial epithet at a group of black men in a passing car, according to statements made to probation officers by his former girlfriend, Kerri Wagner.

Hazelgrove’s brother, who is a San Diego police officer, said his brother was “mellow” when he was not on a mix of drugs, but that, when under the influence of drugs, he turns into a racist. His brother said in the probation report that he had seen Hazelgrove stand on the sidewalk and scream that he was the grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.

At the time of the rest-stop shooting, Hazelgrove was on parole from a two-year prison sentence on charges of receiving stolen property, the probation report says.

A list of crimes for which Hazelgrove had been arrested in the past 10 years included fighting in a public place, disorderly conduct, trespassing and refusal to leave, receiving stolen property, burglary, assault with a deadly weapon and threatening a crime with intent to terrorize, according to the report.

The latter incident consisted of “an unprovoked attack on a black male at Mission Beach” in January, 1989, the report says. “Witnesses reported that the defendant ran his bicycle into a jogging black male and then chased him down the boardwalk on his bicycle, punching him alongside the head while yelling racial slurs. The responding lifeguards indicated that the defendant was acting crazy, kicking at people and screaming, while various beach-goers tried to restrain the defendant.”

During his interview with probation officers, Hazelgrove admitted “dabbling” in the use of drugs, including methamphetamines, cocaine and marijuana. He said the last time he had used drugs was June 26, 1990, three days before his 29th birthday and less than two months before the shooting at the rest stop.

The probation report also lists a series of unprovoked attacks by Hazelgrove while in jails, but does not specify the race of the inmates attacked.

Harrell, who remains disabled nearly a year after he was shot, appeared at Monday’s scheduled sentencing. In a brief interview, he said he hoped to receive some compensation for his injuries and may file a civil suit against Hazelgrove.

Harrell said he will testify when Hazelgrove is sentenced July 31, “because I am still hurting, and he has kept me from going back to work and earning a living for my family.”

The probation report recommends a $200 payment to Harrell.

The report also recommends that Hazelgrove be sentenced to life in prison with possibility of parole, and 11 years and 8 months on lesser charges.

Although earlier mental examinations of Hazelgrove showed that he was mentally capable of standing trial, McDonald, in explaining why she asked for the delay, said Monday that she needs time for further examinations of Hazelgrove.

She already has said that she will seek to appeal his May 10 jury conviction on two counts of attempted murder and lesser counts of evading an officer by reckless driving and possessing a firearm as a felon.