Why Was A Man Convicted Of Murder After Having A Seizure Before Davis Crash?

DAVIS (CBS13) — Was it a tragic accident or murder?

That's the question a Yolo County jury had to answer after a deadly crash prosecutors say was caused by a seizure.

The highly unusual case was centered around not just epilepsy, but around the choices the driver made that day—a day that changed the course of two families forever.

Darlene Morales visited her high-school sweetheart in the hospital every day. The day after her 85th birthday, she was driving home with the hospital. A man she never met, Armando Gonzalez, was headed home too. his wife, Isabel, was days away from delivering their first child.

"He had called me to let me know he was gonna come home early," Isabel said.

The February 2014 crash on a Davis street was violent, leaving Darlene's car crunched against a tree. She was pinned in the car in excruciating pain for what must have seemed to her like forever.

Her son, Bob, and his wife Lucia rushed to the hospital.

"Getting to the hospital and having the doctors tell you, you just probably need to let her go, is very painful," Bob said.

"And we went in with our 21-year-old son and he saw his grandmother laying on the table," Lucia said. "I can't even tell you how many times you just re-live that memory."

It's an incredibly painful memory that never fades.

Darlene's family thought at first it was a tragic accident, until Armando Gonzalez ended up in handcuffs.

"He called me and said, 'They're gonna arrest me,'" she said.

It wasn't alcohol or drugs that prosecutors say caused the deadly crash. They say Armando had a seizure. He has lifelong epilepsy.

With no prior criminal record, Gonzalez is now a convicted murderer. A Yolo County jury found him guilty of second-degree murder and gross vehicular manslaughter.

"It was a shock to me because I didn't feel like he was doing anything out of the law," Isabel said.

For the first time, she's speaking publicly about the verdict she believes is an injustice.

"I wanted the public to know who my husband is. He's not a criminal. He's a man with a medical condition," she said.

Her husband carefully took medication to manage his epilepsy, she said. He was legally licensed to drive.

In a medical evaluation submitted to the Department of Motor Vehicles in August of 2010 obtained by CBS13, his doctors said his condition was stable, describing him as a "low driving risk."

Isabel gave birth when Armando was already behind bars. He's never held his son, Tony, who may graduate high school before his father is released.

Is the 18-year sentence fair? Amanda Zambor with the Yolo County District Attorney's office says without a doubt, justice was served.

"It wasn't a matter of if it would happen, it's a matter of when," she said.

In fact, prosecutors say Armando had at least four prior seizure-related crashes.

The first was in 2002. In 2004, they say he hit a brick wall and nearly died. Another seizure happened in 2010 where he hit a parked car, and in 2011, prosecutors say it happened again and he ran a stop sign and hit a car.

Prosecutors say had Armando been honest about his condition, he may not have had a license in the first place. They say he lied to doctors about seizures that were actually much more frequent than he let on.

"And DMV ultimately based on those lies gave him his license back," she said.

Armando's co-workers testified at the trial that he showed signs of having mini-seizures the day of the crash before he got in the car to drive home. Prosecutors say the legal term is "implied malice." In layman's terms, he was well aware of the risks, but made the choice to drive anyway. That's why he was charged with second-degree murder.

"It's not his choice to have epilepsy obviously, but he knew the dangers. He lied to maintain his license, and he chose to drive anyways knowing how dangerous it was to everyone else on the road," Zambor said.

Investigators say Armando slammed into Darlene at 80 mph on a residential street.

"He was playing Russian roulette," Lucia Morales said. "It's like Bob's mom—my mother-in-law—is the one that got the bullet, not your mom, not your sister, not somebody else's brother.t could've been anybody."

The sympathy Darlene's family first felt for Armando turned to anger.

"All of a sudden, I don't feel for him anymore. He made choices and he made choices over and over again," Bob said.

Isabel disputes the district attorney's account, saying her husband never lied to his doctors or the DMV, and had every right to be on the road that day.

We asked her, with his past seizures and accidents, should he really have been drive.

"The doctor says as long as he goes three months without a seizure he could drive," she said, adding it had been more than three months.

She believes Armando is being punished for a seizure he had no way of knowing was coming, held accountable for a condition the jury didn't fully understand.

"He is my hero and I'm proud of him and I love him," she said.

Prosecutors say it wasn't about epilepsy, a condition people responsibly drive with every day. They told the jury Armando knew his seizure triggers were there, knew he'd suffered mini-seizures, and drove anyway, putting everyone on the road that day in danger.

The trial took two weeks. The jury deliberated less than a day before returning its guilty verdict.

"Reckless disregard for anyone on the street but him," Lucia said. "It makes me—it makes me so angry."

Armando was sentenced to 18 years and 8 months to live in prison. He was also convicted of perjury for lying the DMV. He's planning an appeal. In our interview, his wife apologized to Darlene's family.

Meanwhile, Darlene's family held a joint memorial for her and her husband. He died just weeks after his wife of six decades was killed in the crash.