BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — An appellate court has reversed the murder convictions of a man who was allegedly under the influence of methamphetamine when he crashed into a car in Lamont, killing three women.
A three-judge panel of the Fifth District Court of Appeal found the trial judge gave an incorrect jury instruction at the trial of Jose De Jesus Velazquez-Gomez — an error significant enough that the murder convictions must be overturned.
“The parties agree the trial court erred in instructing the jury that implied malice” — an element of second-degree murder — “can be based on an act that was ‘reasonably foreseeable’ to cause death (rather than ‘highly likely’ to cause death),” according to Wednesday’s ruling…