Drunk Driver Who Killed Woman Back in Jail

NEWPORT BEACH —  A drunk driver who made headlines in 1988 for fatally striking a woman near her Balboa Peninsula home in front of her two children was arrested again Monday on suspicion of drunk driving and drag-racing.

Police stopped Danny David Ornelas, 26, after he sped through a residential area just miles from the site where he killed Debbie Killelea, Sgt. John Desmond said. Beer was found in his car, and he failed a field sobriety test, Desmond said.

Killelea, who was 37, had been walking with two of her three children in an alley behind her home on the Balboa Peninsula when a drunk Ornelas, then 19, struck and killed her. Killelea’s last seconds were captured on a chilling videotape inadvertently shot by Ornelas’ passenger. She is seen with her hands on her hips, apparently trying to get Ornelas to slow down.

In 1989, an Orange County Superior Court jury convicted Ornelas of grossly negligent vehicular manslaughter, and he was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison. But an appellate court overturned the conviction on the grounds that the judge gave improper instructions to the jury before deliberations.

In 1991, Ornelas was convicted a second time of a lesser charge of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. The judge sentenced him to two years in prison but set him free because he already had served that much time.

During his trials, prosecutors alleged that Ornelas, then of Huntington Park, was joy-riding that Labor Day weekend with a blood-alcohol level of 0.18, more than twice the current legal limit.

He and several others were drinking 151-proof rum and malt liquor, prosecutors said. They also charged that Ornelas was driving up to 45 mph in a 15-mph zone when he hit Killelea.

At 1:40 a.m. Monday, Newport Beach Officer Ed Walsh spotted two cars racing at speeds reaching 50 mph through a 30-mph residential zone near Dover and Cliff drives, police said.

The officer followed the speeding cars to the parking lot of the Newport Theatre Arts Center in the 2500 block of Cliff Drive, where the drivers had stopped.

Ornelas agreed to a breath test and failed it, police said, although they would not disclose his blood-alcohol level.

An empty beer can was on the floor by Ornelas’ 26-year-old passenger, and three unopened beer cans were in the car, police said. Ornelas said he had drunk two beers at a friend’s house before he got behind the wheel, Desmond said.

His passenger, the driver of the other car and her passenger were not drunk and were released without citations, police said.

Desmond, who was involved in investigating Killelea’s death, said: “Apparently he hasn’t learned his lesson. He was involved in a collision that ended someone’s life, and you’d think he would learn from that. But it is obvious that it didn’t affect his behavior the way it should have.”

Reidel Post, executive director of the Orange County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, burst into tears Monday when she learned of Ornelas’ arrest.

“It’s really horrifying,” said Post, who attended Ornelas’ second trial. “If, in fact, Danny Ornelas had a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit, then every resource that our community has at its disposal needs to be put in place to make sure that this man does not get behind the wheel of a car again.”

Killelea’s brother, Mike Kilfoy of Costa Mesa, said: “I hate to see this whole thing resurface eight years after the fact. I just wish he would stay out of our area. He’s irresponsible.”

Kilfoy called Ornelas’ sentence “a travesty, a real letdown in the judicial system. I think he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

William Wren, who had worked with Killelea and their neighborhood association on trying to get speed bumps installed, called news of Ornelas’ arrest Monday “just horrible.

“It just shows what our judiciary allows. The sentence he got was ridiculous. I have no sympathy for someone who drives drunk.”

Since his release in 1991, Ornelas had not been arrested until Monday, police said. He has been living in Huntington Beach and working as a waiter at the Anaheim Marriot hotel, Desmond said.

Ralph Bencangey, his defense attorney during both trials, said he had not heard about Monday’s arrest.

“Last I heard, he was doing fine, and, to my knowledge, hadn’t had any run-ins with the law until this moment,” Bencangey said.

Ornelas remains at the city jail on $1,400 bail and is expected to be arraigned today at Municipal Court in Newport Beach.

Ray Farese, who testified at Ornelas’ trials that he had seen Ornelas speed by seconds before hitting Killelea, said he has never been able to forget.

“Just last week, I saw [widower Brian Killelea] at a shopping center and it brought back all those feelings and memories,” said Farese, 36. “It was a pretty traumatic experience. It seems like it just happened yesterday.”

Farese called Ornelas’ latest arrest “very disturbing.”

“I’m really frustrated,” he said. “I thought this guy was going to be put away long enough to think about what he did to that family. It’s a shame. He obviously didn’t learn his lesson.”