Crashed Car Into Home : Drunk Convicted in 4-Year-Old’s Death

A 47-year-old insurance salesman was convicted of second-degree murder Friday for drunkenly crashing his car into a home and killing a sleeping 4-year-old girl near Universal City.

After more than 15 hours of deliberation, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury also found James Benjamin Masoner, 47, guilty of gross vehicular manslaughter and of two separate felony drunk-driving charges.

Judge Florence T. Pickard ordered Masoner jailed pending his sentencing Jan. 8. He will appeal the verdict, said his attorney, Thomas M. Byrne.

Jessica Shaner was sleeping on a couch in her home in the 3800 block of Broadlawn Drive when Masoner’s 1983 Chevrolet Camaro struck her the night of March 4. Her mother, Barbara Shaner, was cut by flying debris.

‘Dead Is Dead’

“There is a difference between someone who takes a gun into a liquor store and blows someone away after he takes $50 and someone who drives drunk and kills somebody, but nonetheless, dead is dead,” Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner said after the verdict.

“This case was unique in that he had several opportunities to not drive home,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. John K. Spillane, the lead prosecutor.

Byrne said of the verdict: “With the victim a 4-year-old girl who was just sleeping at home, that had to have an impact on the jury.”

The crash occurred moments after two of Masoner’s associates, who believed Masoner was too drunk to drive, drove him from a business reception on Wilshire Boulevard. He rode part of the way in the car of one associate and part in his own car, which the other associate drove.

They wound up at a cul-de-sac near Masoner’s home. After the associates left Masoner outside his car, he got back in and drove down the hill, away from his home and into the Shaner home a block away, Spillane said.

Tests determined that Masoner’s blood-alcohol level two hours after the crash was 0.23%, more than twice California’s legal standard of 0.10% for drunkenness.

Masoner contended his car was “a runaway vehicle.” Investigators found its accelerator in a stuck position after the crash. Byrne tried to convince the jury that Masoner was too drunk to understand the possible consequences of driving.

Jurors were unsure whether the accelerator stuck before the crash or jammed because of it, said jury foreman Danial Olson, 35, of Glendale. Olson said they focused instead on Masoner’s being warned about driving drunk on two occasions--on March 4 by his associates and in 1982 after he was convicted of drunk driving in Orange County and sentenced to three years’ probation.

Jurors also said that Masoner was cogent enough to insist on stopping for coffee, provide directions to his home and tell the driver of his car to shift gears, Olson said.

“All of those things conclusively outweigh whether we had to decide if it was a runaway vehicle,” Olson said.

Throttle Studied

“The bottom line was that the accelerator had to be pushed out at least three-quarters of the way,” said juror Harlan DeBie, 44, of Norwalk, referring to the position in which the throttle was found stuck.

“Would a prudent person on a 19% grade push the accelerator three-quarters of the way? . . . We settled that by saying we wouldn’t do that,” DeBie said.

Unless he is granted probation, Masoner faces a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in prison on the murder charge.

“He knew he was going to get some time all along,” Byrne said. “And all throughout, he has felt bad for the family.”