Santa Rosa woman's retrial begins in deadly crash

The wife of Santa Rosa’s newly appointed fire chief was the first witness Tuesday in the retrial of a Santa Rosa woman charged with murder in what prosecutors term a road-rage crash that killed another driver.

Christina Gossner, wife of Chief Tony Gossner, testified about driving up to the scene of the Hall Road crash, seeing the flaming wreckage and encountering the defendant, Heather Howell, 31.

She said the frantic and shoe-less woman ran to her husband’s window, urging him to help rescue Jesse Garcia, 56, of Santa Rosa who was trapped in the overturned convertible.

But Gossner, an off-duty paramedic, said the car was completely on fire and there was nothing they could do.

“It was very, very hot and fully involved,” Gossner told the six-man, six-woman jury.

Asked if she recognized Howell seated across from her in the courtroom in a white sweater, Gossner said she did but that she looked different.

Howell’s hair was blond at the time of the crash but in court more than two years later it was brown.

“She looks different,” Gossner said. “Her hair’s darker.”

Howell, who appeared emotional at times, is being retried on second-degree murder charges after a jury deadlocked last year on the charge.

The panel found her guilty of lesser charges of reckless driving and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, crimes carrying a 10-year sentence. Some jurors said there was insufficient evidence that she acted with malice.

Under the law, she can be convicted of murder if it’s shown she had evil intent. But prosecutors also can make the allegation if there is evidence she knew the dangers of driving while intoxicated because she had a previous drunken-driving conviction.

In her opening statement, prosecutor Anne Masterson - who handled the first trial - said Howell had been drinking before getting behind the wheel on July 14, 2012. Her blood-alcohol level was .11 percent, Masterson said, above the legal limit to drive.

And she was previously convicted of drunken-driving, she said.

The day of the crash, Howell got into a fight with her boyfriend, Tony Kraus, who sped away from her Hartman Lane house on his Harley-Davidson, Masterson said.

Howell chased after him in her black Acura, weaving through traffic and speeding along Fulton Road, running red lights and nearly hitting other drivers, the prosecutor said.

The chase continued onto Hall Road, where Howell rear-ended Garcia’s car after attempting to pass another car on the shoulder, Masterson said.

Gossner, her husband and two children were among the first to the scene. Gossner testified the family had been driving in the area in a department SUV when they heard calls on the radio of a vehicle fire and crash.

She said Howell ran up to them as they arrived, saying she tried unsuccessfully to get Garcia out. One of Gossner’s children snapped a cellphone picture of the burning car, which was shown in court.

She said Howell admitted clipping the car before it overturned. Later, Gossner retrieved Howell’s purse from her car and handed it to her, she said.

“She was obviously very upset and agitated,” Gossner said.

Other witnesses who testified in the first trial were expected to take the stand again to describe Howell’s erratic driving, Masterson said. Police and emergency workers will discuss incriminating statements she made, the prosecutor said.

She asked jurors to return a guilty verdict after what promises to be several weeks of trial.

Howell’s new lawyer, Chief Deputy Public Defender Kristine Burk, admitted Howell’s driving was reckless and even criminal. But she said it wasn’t murder.

She said evidence will show Howell was unwinding at home after visiting her mother in the hospital when she got into her car without thinking to try to explain something to her boyfriend.

Burk said Howell wasn’t angry, suggesting she did not meet a required mental state for a murder conviction.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @ppayne.