Crime & Safety

Rossmoor Man Pleads Not Guilty in Vehicular Manslaughter that Killed Neighbor

Mystery of how Edward Phillips died deepens as defense attorney raises questions — was alcohol primary cause of the crash or were other factors involved.

On the night of Dec. 10, 70-year-old Robert Wyatt reportedly was driving with a 0.18 blood-alcohol level when he struck and killed 85-year-old Edward Phillips in  Rossmoor, the retirement community in which they both lived.

But Wyatt's defense attorney is citing certain factors involved in this case — factors that Walnut Creek police say prolonged the investigation — that he says could remove alcohol from the equation in determining Wyatt's guilt.

"Alcohol is not ultimately the issue in this case," said Danville lawyer William Gagen. "I think there are a great deal of things about this case we will never know."

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Gagen talked about these factors after Wyatt's arraignment Monday in Walnut Creek Superior Court. Wyatt, an environmental law attorney who works with a San Francisco firm, pleaded not guilty to three counts involving manslaughter, driving under the influence and driving with a blood-alcohol-level of .15 percent or higher. The legal limit is 0.08 percent.

Initial police reports say that Phillips was struck by Wyatt's Bentley as he waited for a bus on Pine Knoll Drive, the street on which both men live. Gagen said the two men did not know each other. The accident happened that Friday in December about 6:38 p.m., near where Pine Knoll intersects with Golden Rain Road.

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Gagen said what complicates this case and could lessen the importance of  his client's alleged level of intoxication is that Phillips was in the roadway when he was struck. And police are not sure why, Gagen said. They also don't know whether he was in the roadway to cross the road, either to the north or south, or to signal for a bus to stop. But he was not in a crosswalk.

Gagen said that Phillips had called for one of the Rossmoor buses to stop along Pine Knoll Road to pick him up and take him to PF Chiang's China Bistro, where he dined most nights.

Rossmoor residents can call for rides, and the buses will stop near their homes, rather than at the bus stops. There is a bus stop at the corner of Pine Knoll and Golden Rain Road, but Phillips was not near it, Gagen said. He could have been crossing the road south to sit on a bench across the road from the building in which he lives, Gagen said, adding that it's all speculation.

Also unknown is whether Phillips stepped into the road when he thought he saw the bus coming to signal it to stop. The oncoming vehicle likely was Wyatt's Bentley.

Also, Phillips was struck in a section where the road crests, hindering visibility for  pedestrian and motorist, Gagen said. And it was dark. Gagen said his client, traveling toward his home at 25 mph, might not have seen Phillips standing in the road.

Wyatt felt a bump, stopped his car and saw Phillips lying in the road injured, Gagen said. There were initial reports that he fled the scene of the accident, but Gagen said that Wyatt was not fleeing the scene but was driving to the front security gate, about a mile away, where he knew he would find someone to summon help.

He remained at the gate until Walnut Creek police arrived to question him.

Walnut Creek police conducted at least two reconstructions of the scene over the many months it took prosecutors to file charges. Gagen said he had an expert observe those reconstructions. 

Wyatt is the second septuagenarian that Gagen has defended in the past year on vehicular manslaughter and drunken-driving charges.

a 70-year-old Concord man avoided prison time and was sentenced to probation in the of Kathleen Moorhead of Walnut Creek.

Gagen said that case was pretty clear, in that his client, Ruel Sasser, was under the influence when he lost control of his car on Treat Boulevard, ran it onto the sidewalk and killed Moorhead, a 57-year-old attorney who was out for a summer evening stroll.

The role alcohol played in Phillips' death is less clear, Gagen said.


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