Driver high on heroin convicted of murder in crash that killed bicyclist
A jury Monday convicted a Huntington Beach man of murder for being high on heroin when he ran over a bicyclist in Newport Beach last year.
It took jurors less than a day of deliberations to return the guilty verdict in the trial of 24-year-old Neil Storm Stephany.
During the trial, Stephany’s defense admitted that Stephany was driving under the influence when his pickup struck 30-year-old Shaun Eagleson, a Fountain Valley resident who was biking along East Coast Highway on the evening of Oct. 19, 2014.
Eagleson was an avid cyclist, and the area near Crystal Cove where he was hit was one of his favorite places to ride, according to his widow, Sandra Eagleson.
Though defense attorney Brian Gurwitz conceded that his client was high while driving, he argued that prosecutors failed to prove that Stephany showed reckless disregard for human life, which would be necessary to support the charge of second-degree murder.
Prosecutor Jennifer Walker emphasized that Stephany had been convicted previously of misdemeanor drunk driving and that as part of a plea agreement, he was told he could be charged with murder if he ever drove intoxicated again and killed someone.
Walker played 911 calls describing how erratically Stephany was driving before he hit Eagleson.
Some witnesses said he dozed off, swerved across lanes, stopped at green lights and ran over a curb.
Walker said Stephany had many opportunities to reevaluate his decision to drive and instead kept going, ultimately killing Eagleson.
Callers to 911 also described Stephany speeding away from the deadly crash. Police arrested him soon after near Fashion Island.
According to testimony, Stephany told officers that he thought he had hit a parked car and that he drove off to avoid being caught violating his probation, which barred him from driving with any measurable amount of drugs or alcohol in his system.
Stephany is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 15. He could receive 15 years to life in prison.
