Marine guilty of killing driver, 63

A Marine was convicted of second-degree murder Wednesday for drunkenly slamming into the back of a car on MacArthur Boulevard and killing the driver in Newport Beach last year.

A jury Wednesday found Lance Cpl. Elijah Leigh Ferguson, 22, guilty of killing 63-year-old Newport Coast resident Michael Sein on Feb. 22, 2008, when he slammed his Dodge Caliber, traveling 75 mph in a 50 mph limit zone, into the back of Sein’s Aston Martin as it idled at a red light at MacArthur and Jamboree Road.

Sein died from his injuries 30 minutes after the crash.

His wife, Grace Sein, who was in the passenger seat, suffered back injuries and bleeding in the brain, but survived.

Ferguson was convicted of murder because witnesses reported that, earlier in the day, Ferguson, along with his fellow Marines planning to go on leave for the weekend, was given a safety briefing about the dangers of drinking and driving.

Marines testified that they’d received hundreds of those briefings and prosecutors used it to establish that Ferguson knowingly put his and others’ lives in jeopardy by getting behind the wheel.

He had been drinking throughout the day, and Marines took his keys away because they knew he planned on driving home to Santa Ana to see his wife.

At 11 p.m., Ferguson asked a lower-ranking Marine to drive him home, and when he kept Ferguson’s keys, Ferguson “pulled rank” and took his keys to drive himself.

Ferguson is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 22.

He faces up to 21 years to life in prison.