COSTA MESA : Conviction Upheld in Murder by Auto

An appellate court has upheld the murder conviction of a 20-year-old Costa Mesa man found guilty last year of running over a young man three times in what prosecutors described as a drunken attack.

In a decision released Monday, the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana rejected arguments by attorneys for Dallas Keith Carter that the trial judge wrongfully refused the defendant’s requests to call a key witness and to let the jury see the scene of the May 15, 1988, crime.

Carter is serving a sentence of 25 years-to-life for first-degree murder. Witnesses said Carter, after a struggle, ran over 26-year-old Javier G. Sarabia of Garden Grove three times as a passenger in his car yelled “hit him again!”

Carter, who witnesses said made two U-turns as the injured Sarabia tried to get away, claimed in his own defense at trial that he thought he had hit a speed bump.