Seven-Year Dogfight Ends In Full Acquittal
On March 25, 2025, after two months in the San Bernardino County Superior Court (Victorville Courthouse), our firm secured a complete acquittal in a case that had been hanging over our client’s life for nearly seven years.
The journey began in early 2018, when the family hired us to defend their son. The incident at the center of this case had occurred in 2017. At the time, our client was a 20-year-old autistic young man, accused of a devastating act: running over a 15-year-old boy who was walking in a bike lane on a busy road in Hesperia, California — killing him instantly.
According to the prosecution’s story, our client fled the scene, drove erratically, and was chased down by a civilian who reported that he was “all over the road.” Multiple 911 callers described him as “obviously drunk.” When police arrived, they said he fell out of the car, and they found a bottle of prescription anti-anxiety medication in his pocket. In a recorded interrogation, our client admitted to taking “too many” pills, said they made him dizzy and drowsy, admitted to fleeing after seeing the boy’s body, and said he shouldn’t have been driving.
No field sobriety tests (FSTs) were given — police claimed it was for his own safety. No breath tests were offered. Nearly three hours after the crash, his blood was drawn and tested at .24% BAC, along with the prescription medications he acknowledged taking.
The Charges
The state brought an array of serious charges, but the jury’s verdicts told a different story:
- PC 191.5(a) – Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated – Not Guilty
- PC 191.5(b) – Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated – Not Guilty
- PC 192(c)(1) – Gross Vehicular Manslaughter – Not Guilty
- PC 192(c)(2) – Vehicular Manslaughter – Not Guilty
- VC 23153(a) – Felony DUI w/ GBI – 11 to 1 Not Guilty (Mistrial; DA dismissed)
- VC 20001(b) – Hit & Run Causing Death – Not Guilty
- VC 20001(c) – Hit & Run Causing Death Enhancement – Not True
The Defense Themes
1. Autism Mimics “Signs of Impairment”
From day one, we made it clear: our client was on trial for being different.
Autistic individuals often exhibit behaviors — balance issues, atypical speech patterns, unusual affect — that can be mistaken for intoxication. The police never investigated whether his “objective symptoms” were actually just expressions of his developmental disability.
We showed the jury that the way he walked, talked, and interacted that night was the same way he always did. It resonated deeply: this was not impairment — it was autism.
- The “Standard Disconnect” Defense
The prosecution claimed a .24% BAC, but the client’s presentation didn’t match. No odor of alcohol. No slurred speech (just his normal autistic speech). The first officer didn’t even suspect alcohol intoxication. He walked up and down stairs at the station. No bloodshot or watery eyes, no vomiting, no stupor — none of the classic high-BAC signs.
We hammered the point that no breath test was ever offered — a strong sign officers didn’t believe alcohol was involved at the time.
- No Access to Alcohol
Our client was only 20 and lived a quarter mile from the crash scene. His mother testified there was no alcohol in the house. Police never searched his home. At one point, desperate to explain away the impossibility of the BAC result, the lead investigator actually suggested he might have ordered pure ethanol off Amazon.
- A Bad DUI Investigation
The lead officer presented himself as infallible — but on cross, he was caught in multiple lies and memory lapses. Jurors later said he should be fired. The first officer on scene of the incident was also caught in many lies by attorney Lara Gressley. In fact, Ms. Gressley got her to admit to lying on a search warrant to a judge. That is how the case started.
- Flawed Blood Alcohol Testing
The San Bernardino County Crime Lab is the only lab in the state using direct injection single-column gas chromatography for BAC analysis. Our Kelly hearing before trial put their methods under the microscope.
State expert Ricky Delgado was forced to admit that:
- The industry standard is dual-column testing.
- Single column runs the risk of prescription drugs co-eluting with ethanol.
- The lab lacked retention times for most volatile organic compounds.
When the jury heard this, they lost confidence in the results entirely.
- Blood Sample Destroyed
Despite policy to retain samples in vehicular manslaughter cases until the case concludes, the lab destroyed our client’s sample just one year after the incident. We didn’t win a Trombetta motion, despite a valiant effort by attorney Lara Gressley, but we secured a strong jury instruction.
Mike Donaldson’s closing line became the jury’s mantra:
“The second you think you’d like to see the blood retested with a reliable machine, you know your verdict — not guilty.”
- Drug Evidence Helped Us
Bio-Tox Laboratories’ expert testified that our client’s blood drug levels were therapeutic, not excessive, and any impairment would have to come from alcohol — which we had already undermined.
- Accident Reconstruction
Both the lead investigator and the MAIT officer ultimately conceded that the impact occurred in the lane, not in the bike lane — undercutting the DA’s key theory of negligence.
- False Confession
The interrogation video told its own story: a young autistic man repeatedly telling officers he struggled to communicate, hitting himself in distress, and being ordered 30 times to “look at me” — a near-impossible demand for someone on the spectrum. We proved some of his admissions were factually impossible, casting doubt on all of them.
Our Expert Team
- Client’s Mother – testified to his baseline behavior and the absence of alcohol in the home.
- Debra Erickson – emphasized the risks of misreading autism as impairment; noted the lack of odor at .20+ BAC and the absence of a breath test indicated to her the client was simply exhibiting symptoms of autism – not impairment.
- Dewayne Beckner – showed how implausible a .29% BAC would be without obvious symptoms.
- Dr. Herb Summers (Physics) – placed the collision’s area of impact in the traffic lane, not the bike lane.
- Dr. Joshua Feder (Autism Specialist) – explained autistic behavior patterns, including the “patterned behavior” of continuing to the grocery store for cereal milk after the incident.
- Amanda Culbertson – testified at the Kelly hearing on the unreliability of single-column testing.
The Outcome
After seven long years, the jury came back with not guilty on every count.
It wasn’t just a legal victory — it was a rejection of the idea that someone can be convicted for behaving differently.
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