Not Murder

JURY REJECTS MURDER ARGUMENT IN '97 CHANDLER ACCIDENT CASE
Published on Saturday, June 6, 1998
© 1998 The Arizona Republic
Byline: By Jim Walsh, The Arizona Republic

Aimee Ellis' sport utility vehicle blew up as if it had been bombed. She was killed instantly. But the weapon used by her killer, Matt Demos, was a pickup truck, driven while he was drunk and after he had smoked marijuana.
On Friday, a Maricopa County Superior Court jury rejected a prosecutor's pleas for a second-degree murder conviction and found Demos guilty of manslaughter, a lesser charge more typical of vehicular death cases.
Demos also was found guilty of possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
''Drinking and driving to the extent that Mr. Demos did is Russian roulette,'' Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Anthony Novitsky told the jury Thursday.
''The gun went off. It killed a girl. That's wrong,'' he said.
Although he argued passionately for a second-degree murder conviction, Novitsky was not surprised by the manslaughter verdict.
''It really is difficult for a jury to find second-degree murder in a traffic case. It's difficult for people to think of an unintentional death like this as murder,'' Novitsky said.
''We fight an uphill battle when it comes to DUI. We're fighting an uphill battle to raise social consciousness.''
Bonnie Crutcher of Lake Villa, Ill., Ellis' mother, said the case was a tale of two 20-year-olds. Demos is now 21.
''Look at the difference between a responsible 20-year-old and an irresponsible 20-year-old,'' she said.
Crutcher said Ellis had taken flying lessons and was torn between joining the Air Force to become a fighter pilot, or a career working with small children, her other passion.
''I used to worry about her when she went up in a plane,'' Crutcher said. ''Here, she's just sitting at a red light.''
Crutcher is starting a Mothers Against Drunk Driving chapter in Lake County, Ill., about 60 miles north of Chicago.
The family hopes Judge James Keppel will send a message by giving Demos a long sentence on July 20.
The sentencing range for manslaughter is seven to 21 years in prison, with 10 1/2 years the average sentence. Demos will have to serve 85 percent of the sentence before he becomes eligible for parole.
Second-degree murder carries a range of 10 to 22 years in prison, with no early release available.
Ellis had just left a 1997 Christmas party and was stopped on Chandler Boulevard when a pickup driven by Demos rammed her going an estimated 77 mph.
Demos recorded a 0.231 percent blood alcohol count a short time after the wreck, more than double the 0.10 percent level at which Arizona drivers are presumed under the influence.
A bag of marijuana and a pipe were found inside his pants pocket at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center. Novitsky listed these facts as reasons for the jury to find Demos displayed ''extreme indifference to human life,'' the legal standard for second-degree murder.
But Larry Kazan, Demos' defense attorney, said Novitsky's evidence amounted to ''pipe dreams''.
Chandler police did not calculate Demos' speed properly, no witnesses described Demos as having slurred speech or poor balance before the wreck, and witnesses did not report erratic driving, he said.
Kazan instead blamed a waitress who failed to card Demos and a friend who told Demos he would give him a ride home but never did.