Boat Crash Was ‘Tragic Accident’ but Not Manslaughter, Jury Told

Virl Earles thought he was in the middle of the boating channel when he drove a power boat into a concrete buoy in Seal Beach two years ago, killing five passengers, his attorney told a Superior Court jury Monday.

Earles, a 31-year-old Seal Beach construction worker, is being tried a second time on involuntary manslaughter charges. His first trial ended in January in a mistrial, with jurors deadlocked 9-3 for acquittal.

Earles’ attorney, Gary Pohlson, told jurors in an opening statement Monday that the people in the boat that morning were “young people, fooling around. But not in a dangerous way.”

The boat Earles was driving crashed into a concrete Navy mooring buoy about 260 yards inside the mouth of Anaheim Bay. Earles and the three other survivors were seriously injured. Earles and two others remained on the buoy while the fourth swam to shore for help.

Earles’ defense is that the crash was nothing more than a tragic accident. Prosecutors contend that Earles was criminally negligent, primarily because he drove the boat at a speed no less than five times the legal 5-m.p.h. speed limit.

Killed in the boat crash were Anthony Sutton, 27, Ronald Myers, 22, and John Bakos, 22, all of Seal Beach; Kathy Weaver, 24, of Laguna Beach, and Patricia Hulings, 20, of Downey.

The other survivors besides Earles are Carol Kemble, 25, of Laguna Beach; Ernest Chavez, 25, of Bakersfield, and Stephen Brennan, 24, of Huntington Beach. It was Brennan who swam to shore for help.