Drunk Driver Convicted of Murder in Death of Child

An insurance salesman who crashed his car into a home near Universal City, killing a sleeping 4-year-old girl, was convicted Friday of second-degree murder.

The man, James Benjamin Masoner, 47, got back into his car after he was driven home from a party by associates who had decided he was too drunk to drive.

After more than 15 hours of deliberation, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury also found Masoner guilty of gross vehicular manslaughter and of two separate felony drunk-driving charges.

Judge Florence T. Pickard ordered him jailed pending sentencing on Jan. 8. Masoner’s attorney, Thomas M. Byrne, said he will appeal the verdict.

Jessica Shaner was sleeping on a couch in her home in the 3800 block of Broadlawn Drive, at the foot of a hill, when Masoner’s car crashed through a wall and struck her the night of March 4. Her mother, Barbara Shaner, was cut by flying debris.

‘Dead Is Dead’

“There is a difference between someone who takes a gun into a liquor store and blows someone away after he takes $50 and someone who drives drunk and kills somebody, but nonetheless, dead is dead,” Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner said after the verdict.

“This case was unique in that he had several opportunities to not drive,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. John K. Spillane, the lead prosecutor in the case. “In spite of people warning him, he went ahead and drove.”

The crash occurred moments after two of Masoner’s associates drove him from a business reception on Wilshire Boulevard to a cul-de-sac near his home, where they left him.

Masoner then got in his car and drove back down the hill, away from his home and into the Shaner home a block away.

Faces Life in Prison

Tests determined that Masoner’s blood-alcohol level two hours after the crash was 0.23%, more than twice California’s legal standard of 0.10% for drunk driving.

Masoner contended that his car was “a runaway vehicle.”

Masoner faces a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in prison on the murder charge.