Lonnberg: guilty of murder

A jury found the Gilroy woman who killed her daughter and husband in a drunken car crash guilty of second-degree murder Tuesday afternoon.
Just a day before the jury found her guilty of murder, 52-year-old Stacy Lonnberg broke a year-and-a-half period of public silence with a two-hour testimony in which she profiled herself as an innocent, grieving woman.
“I knew I was drunk, but I felt fine,” Lonnberg said at the Hall of Justice in San Jose Monday morning.
When the 12-member jury – a mix of gender, ages and races – presented the “guilty” verdict, Lonnberg displayed no emotion, said Deputy District Attorney Matt Braker, who prosecuted the case.
“Her act of crying and sobbing is over,” he said Tuesday after the trial. “It seemed to be, during the trial, that she was crying on cue.”
Nobody, not even Lonnberg herself (who has two prior DUI convictions) argued that the crash wasn’t the result of her being extremely intoxicated. Her blood alcohol was estimated to be at a .20 at the time of the crash – the legal limit is .08 – which prosecutors say means she probably consumed about seven to eight drinks before starting her truck’s ignition.
Lonnberg was driving her family to a wedding the afternoon of January 14, 2012 when she flipped her Toyota Tacoma on Highway 85 in Los Gatos, expelling her 26-year-old daughter, Tiffiny Gillette, 50 feet from the car. Gillette was pronounced dead on the scene. Lonnberg’s husband, 57-year-old Fred Lonnberg, was rushed to the hospital but died a few hours later. Her 18-month-old grandson who was also in the vehicle escaped unharmed.
Lonnberg will be sentenced Oct. 11 at the Hall of Justice in San Jose. She faces 15 years to life in prison.
California Highway Patrol discovered a half-empty bottle of vodka disguised in a disposable water bottle in the center console of her car, according to CHP Officer Ken Hubble who testified in court. Stoic jurors scribbled notes last week as Braker brought out the vodka-filled water bottle as evidence.
Javier Rios moved about the courtroom Tuesday morning, demonstratively explaining to the jurors why he thought Lonnberg should be acquitted on all charges.
“Everybody agrees that she killed two people,” Rios said, pleading the jurors to not make a decision based on “disgust” toward Lonnberg.
Painting Lonnberg as a woman ignorant of the risks of drunk driving, Rios reiterated how much she loved her family and would have never knowingly put them at risk for death.
“When she wept on the stand yesterday, those were the tears of a mother who lost her only child,” he said, solemnly.
Fred Lonnberg’s family, who also cried through the trial’s closing statements Tuesday, could be heard scoffing and muttering “Oh my God” during Rios’ hour-long discourse.
Wednesday afternoon, the family said they were relieved at the jury’s decision.
“We are pleased with the outcome of the trial. Although nothing can bring back our father Fred and stepsister Tiffiny and the absence of a mother and grandparents for Ethan, we find comfort that justice was served and other lives could be spared,” they said in a written statement.
After less than a few hours of deliberations, the jurors presented their verdict and stuck around to embrace Fred Lonnberg’s family, Braker said.
Throughout the course of the week-long trial, Braker painted Lonnberg as a lying, manipulative woman who willingly took the risk of driving her family under the influence, knowing full well she was placing their lives in danger.
“She’s trying to manipulate you and me in this courtroom,” Braker said.
Lonnberg, dressed in a pink button down dress shirt, once glanced at the jury Tuesday morning, studying their individual faces. Her hair, which was long and blonde at the time of the crash, has gone completely gray.
In 2008, her employer, William Seals of Tri-County Veterinary Hospital in Gilroy, rushed Lonnberg to the hospital when she showed up for work at 7:30 a.m. so drunk she could not walk or talk, according to trial testimonies.
Seals testified that Lonnberg had driven herself to work that morning. He told her not to return to work until she got treatment for her alcohol problems. She never returned.
According to Rios, in the moments before the crash, Lonnberg was having a “lighthearted” talk with her grandson, excited to show him off to her friends at the wedding.
CHP reports show that Lonnberg sideswiped a vehicle in another lane, and then to compensate, she jerked her truck into the fast lane at 85 miles per hour, causing it to roll several times.
Hubble, who was dispatched to the incident, testified that Lonnberg showed little remorse after the crash.
“At no point did she inquire about the well being of anyone,” Hubble said in court.
When Hubble informed Lonnberg that her daughter was dead, Lonnberg allegedly snapped back, “Well, that’s her fault,” for not wearing a seatbelt.
Hubble said she did, however, show concern over who would take care of her cats and horses while she was in jail.
Rios maintained that Lonnberg’s history as a “long-time alcoholic” made her confident she could drive safely while under the influence.
“Stacy was 100 percent sure she would make it to the party that day,” he said. “She had done it before, thousands of times.”
Playing to human compassion, Rios also summarized Lonnberg as the neglected child of two alcoholic parents.
“Her mom was an alcoholic and commonly drove drunk. Never had an accident. What is that going to teach a kid?” Rios said.
Originally charged with manslaughter, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office upped Lonnberg’s charges to two counts of murder and one count of child endangerment 10 days after the car crash.