Local News in Brief : Convictions Overturned
A Pomona Superior Court judge has thrown out two felony convictions in a freeway shooting case involving a driver who waved a gun at another motorist, then handed the weapon to a passenger, who fired five shots into the other vehicle.
In dismissing the convictions, Judge Glenn M. Pfau ruled that prejudicial statements by the prosecutor had led a jury to convict Angelo Sirigos, 21, of assault with a deadly weapon and firing into an occupied vehicle.
No one was injured in the March, 1987, shooting, which occurred in rush-hour traffic on the Foothill Freeway in San Dimas. Sirigos was the only defendant in the case because the driver of the other car, Jerry Bright, 26, of Pomona, was unable to identify the gunman in the back seat.
Pfau let stand Sirigos’ convictions for illegally carrying a firearm in a vehicle and brandishing a gun in a threatening manner, both misdemeanors. He sentenced Sirigos to two three-month jail terms, both suspended, and placed him on two years’ probation.
Defense attorney Basil Lambros had argued that when Sirigos handed the gun to his passenger, he had no idea the man intended to fire the weapon.
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