Delgado's defense won't use rollover claim

Edith Delgado, 19, of Redwood City, is currently standing trial for the July 5 fatal crash on northbound Highway 101 in Menlo Park.

Prosecutors allege Delgado was speeding and weaving in and out of traffic in her white Ford Mustang at about 9 p.m. when she struck a red Ford Explorer, causing it to lose control and roll over several times before landing on its roof.

Tonga’s Prince Tu’ipelehake, 54; Princess Kaimana Tu’ipelehake, 45; and their driver, Vinisia Hefa, 36, were in the Explorer and were pronounced dead at the site of the crash, according to the California Highway Patrol.

A lawsuit filed Monday in Santa Clara County Superior Court against the Ford Motor Co., on behalf of members of the Tongan royal family, alleges the Ford Explorer’s design and manufacture was the main cause of the deaths, said Richard Alexander, a San Jose attorney who filed the suit.

According to the lawsuit, Ford officials knew the 1998 Ford Explorer, like the one driven by Hefa, "was inherently unstable” and "had a dangerous tendency to trip, rollover or flip...especially in emergency freeway turning maneuvers.”

Outside a San Mateo County Superior courtroom Tuesday afternoon, defense attorney Randy Moore acknowledged the lawsuit but said that product liability cannot be introduced as a defense in a criminal case such as his, because he has already conceded that Delgado "started the chain of events by making an unsafe lane change” that led to the fatal crash.

Witnesses in the case have testified that they saw Delgado’s white Mustang drive past them on the highway, at speeds they estimated at 80 to 90 mph, apparently racing another vehicle, a black Cadillac Escalade. Drivers reported both cars were dangerously passing other vehicles right before Delgado’s Mustang clipped the Ford Explorer.

Delgado has pleaded not guilty to three counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence for her alleged role in the crash.

"This happened in a matter of seconds,” Moore said Tuesday. "Eyewitness testimony is probably the most unreliable evidence that you can present in a courtroom.”

Moore has not disputed that Delgado’s car hit the Explorer, but has denied that his client was grossly negligent.

"I want to make sure that the real truth here comes in,” Moore said. "She had an accident when she changed lanes, and she didn’t use the best of judgment when she did that.”

"I’m not blaming the victims here,” he added.

Moore said he believes the appropriate verdict would be misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, which usually brings a one-year county jail sentence, he said — most of which Delgado has already served since her arrest in July.

Three days of testimony have already been completed in the trial, which is estimated to last two weeks.

Moore said he and Delgado have not yet decided whether she will testify in her own defense.

The trial is scheduled to continue Wednesday at 9 a.m., with witness testimony expected to resume in the afternoon.

Delgado remains in custody in lieu of $1 million bail. If convicted of all the charges she is facing, she could face a maximum of eight years in prison, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.