Driver Charged With Murder in Two Deaths
Murder charges were filed Tuesday against a Costa Mesa driver who plowed into a car in Huntington Beach early Sunday, killing two newspaper deliverymen.
Michael Edward Nelson, 31, was charged Tuesday with two counts of murder and one count of felony evading arrest. Police said the accident occurred after Nelson led California Highway Patrol officers on a high-speed chase.
He is scheduled to be arraigned today in Westminster.
Nelson, a U.S. Coast Guard petty officer, initially was arrested on suspicion of two counts of vehicular manslaughter. Evidence that he might have been drunk at the time of the crash elevated those charges to murder, Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Tanizaki said.
Nelson, who is based in San Pedro, broadsided a car driven by William R. Hagerman, 58, of Irvine at Magnolia and Hamilton avenues. Hagerman had been showing Tan Van Nguyen, 52, of Westminster a New York Times delivery route in the area, police said. Both men died in the crash.
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