{"id":68666,"date":"2015-12-14T16:38:50","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T00:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=68666"},"modified":"2015-12-15T15:21:06","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T23:21:06","slug":"murder-trial-underway-for-driver-accused-in-fatal-lancaster-home-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2015\/12\/14\/murder-trial-underway-for-driver-accused-in-fatal-lancaster-home-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"Murder trial underway for driver accused in fatal Lancaster home crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The trial stems from a crash that occurred around 10:55 p.m. Sunday, March 29, 2015, on the 1000 block of West Avenue J-12 in Lancaster. [LUIS MEZA]<\/figcaption><\/figure>LANCASTER — A murder trial began Monday for a 26-year-old Lancaster man accused of driving drunk, crashing into a home and killing an elderly woman who was in her bedroom.<\/p>\n

Aaron Benson<\/strong> is charged with second-degree murder for the death of 71-year-old Patricia Ann Holmes<\/strong>. He is also charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury within 10 years of another DUI offense and driving with a .08 percent blood alcohol content causing injury within 10 years of another DUI offense.<\/p>\n

\"Aaron
Aaron Benson is in custody with bail set at $1 million. (Booking photo courtesy LASD)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The charges stem from a crash that occurred around 10:55 p.m. Sunday, March 29, on the 1000 block of West Avenue J-12 in Lancaster.<\/p>\n

Benson was driving drunk when he sideswiped cars parked on the street and then crashed his pickup truck through a bedroom, where Holmes was lying in bed, according to Deputy District Attorney Sun Chung.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truck came to rest on top of Ms. Holmes,\u201d Chung told the jury during her opening statement Monday.<\/p>\n

The evidence would show that Benson\u2019s blood alcohol content was .21 percent an hour and a half after the crash, and Benson admitted to drinking two 24-ounce beers and two shots of whiskey between 8:30 and 10 p.m. on the night of the fatal crash, Chung said.<\/p>\n

Jurors would hear evidence regarding Benson\u2019s 2011 criminal conviction for DUI, Chung said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this case is about is a choice that this defendant made,\u201d the prosecutor told the jury.<\/p>\n

During his opening statement, defense attorney Manuel Medrano stressed that his client was not guilty of second-degree murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was absolutely unforeseeable that the truck would end up in the bedroom of that house,\u201d Medrano told the jury.<\/p>\n

Medrano described Benson as a responsible, hardworking young man who had a longstanding drinking problem. \u201cHe started drinking alcohol at about age 10,\u201d Medrano told the jury.<\/p>\n

Benson would be taking the witness stand during trial to look jurors in the eye and tell his story, the defense attorney said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a guy with a rap sheet as long as your left arm,\u201d Medrano told the jury.<\/p>\n

If convicted as charged, Benson faces a possible maximum sentence of 15 years to life in state prison.<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to continue this week in Department A20 of the Antelope Valley courthouse.<\/p>\n

Previous related stories:<\/p>\n

Murder trial ordered in Lancaster crash that killed sleeping elderly woman<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Hearing moved to late May for alleged drunk driver who crashed into woman\u2019s home<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Man pleads not guilty in crash that killed elderly woman sleeping inside Lancaster home<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Murder charge filed in Lancaster home crash that killed sleeping elderly woman<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Suspected DUI driver crashes into Lancaster home, woman killed<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER — A murder trial began Monday for a 26-year-old Lancaster man accused of driving drunk, crashing into a home and killing an elderly woman who was in her bedroom. Aaron Benson is charged with second-degree murder for the death of 71-year-old Patricia Ann Holmes. He is also charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":62099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[719],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68666"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}