Jurors on Friday found a 39-year-old Colorado man guilty of second-degree murder in the death of an Italian woman who was among more than an dozen people struck when the man drove his car onto the crowded Venice boardwalk.
Nathan Louis Campbell was charged with murder in the death of 32-year-old Alice Gruppioni, who was on her honeymoon, as well as more than 30 other counts in connection with the Aug. 3, 2013, crash.
The trial began at the Airport Branch of the Los Angeles County Superior Court on April 30, and the jury was handed the case late Tuesday. No television news cameras have been allowed in the courtroom.
A verdict was being read just after 4 p.m. Friday, a Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman said. Campbell was found guilty of second-degree murder, 17 counts of assault with a deadly weapon and 10 counts of leaving the scene of an accident.
“We were able to prove the defendant committed the crimes of murder and assault with a deadly weapon, and he’s now going to be held accountable for those crimes,” prosecutor Victor Avila said outside the courthouse.
He faces up to life in state prison. His sentencing hearing was scheduled for Aug. 5.
Campbell, described as a transient who may have been living out of his 2008 Dodge Avenger, allegedly abandoned the car on a street near Ocean Front Walk immediately after the rampage, which left the landmark tourist destination in chaos.
Amid a manhunt, he turned himself into Santa Monica police about two hours after the crash, the DA’s office said.
At a preliminary hearing in late 2013, a witness described people on the boardwalk trying to move out of the path of the Dodge while the vehicle zigged and zagged, seemingly trying deliberately to strike the fleeing pedestrians.
Campbell’s attorney said he was trying to avoid people, the Los Angeles Times reported. The defendant also claimed he had placed his car into reverse when it accidentally slipped into drive, the DA’s office said.
Last month, Gruppioni’s husband Christian Casadei testified in the trial, saying he had tried to pull his new bride out of the way. He said he felt the car’s impact, found himself on the ground and then discovered his wife, fatally injured.
Gruppioni was carried on the vehicle’s hood for 300 feet before sliding off as the car continued down the boardwalk, a prosecutor told jurors, according to the Times.
The Gruppioni family said through an attorney that they were grateful for the jury verdict and for Avila’s “pursuit of justice on Alice’s behalf.”
“We deeply miss Alice and our hearts will always be with our beautiful wife and daughter,” read the brief statement, sent to media by attorney Gregory L. Bentley.
A prosecutor said Campbell told another homeless man he planned to run down a drug dealer who had not returned after receiving a $35 payment for meth, the Times reported.
“The drug dealer had taken their money and walked south on the boardwalk,” Avila said. “The defendant became frustrated and angry and wanted to do something, kill that individual, run that individual over.”
Venice resident Alex Thompson came upon the scene moments after the crash.
“It was pretty bad,” Thompson said. “People were sitting on the ground screaming and moaning. They were in shock.”
Casadei and Gruppioni’s family sued the city of Los Angeles over the crash in July 2014.
KTLA’s Kennedy Ryan contributed to this story.
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