SANTA MONICA, Calif., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- An elderly California man was convicted Friday of 10 counts of vehicular manslaughter for driving his car into a crowded open-air farmer's market.
George Weller was 86 at the time of the 2003 crash. Jurors spent more than a week in deliberations before reaching a guilty verdict, KNBC-TV in Los Angeles said.
Weller was not in court to hear the verdict. His lawyers said he has health problems.
The crash in Santa Monica left 10 people dead and 63 hurt. Weller said that he hit the gas pedal instead of the brake by mistake.
During her summation, Deputy District Attorney Ann Ambrose argued that Weller demonstrated gross negligence amounting to an indifference to human life, KNBC said
Defense lawyers said that he made an honest mistake and argued that prosecutors cherry-picked potential witnesses from the scores of people on the scene to make their case. They also pointed to discrepancies between what some witnesses said in court and what they told police at the time, the television station reported.
