A 58-year-old man accused of crashing his 48-foot sport fishing boat into the jetty near Alamitos Bay last year, killing a passenger and leaving nearly a dozen others, including himself, with injuries, had a blood-alcohol level measured at 0.152 percent at the hospital after the crash, according to evidence presented at the man’s preliminary hearing Wednesday, Dec. 10.
But Kevin John King’s attorney argued during the hearing that the measurement was too high considering he had lost a lot of blood as a result of the crash.
King, 58, faces one count each of voluntary manslaughter in the operation of a vessel while intoxicated and operating a vessel while under the influence in connection with the July 3, 2024 crash, which killed 59-year-old John Correa.
Several passengers testified during the hearing, which lasted more than a day in Long Beach Superior Court, and testified that King was the only one they saw driving the boat that night. One testified that he drank a margarita, another said she made him a rum and coke and he allegedly told police at the hospital he had two glasses of wine.
In the end, Judge Debra A. Cole ruled Wednesday there was enough evidence to send the case to trial.
King had welcomed 11 friends aboard the Four Kings, his 48-foot vessel, in Alamitos Bay at about 6 p.m. that night. One passenger during testimony noted two boxes of liquor and jokingly asked if they were headed to Catalina for the weekend.
They cruised toward downtown, then went outside the break wall, but quickly reversed course in rough waters. They stopped to share a meal together and headed back to the dock along the shoreline.
Along that path is where the boat crashed into a jetty leading into Alamitos Bay, some of the passengers testified during the hearing.
Marine Safety officers Devon Beebe and Christopher Terhune testified that they were called to the jetty, just outside the entrance to Alamitos Bay, about 9:20 p.m. and found a boat taking on water. Both went to the upper deck and found Correa with his face “impaled” on a cup holder and in almost a kneeling position in front of the passenger seat. He died at the scene.
The boat was traveling an estimated 20 to 22 mph at the time of the crash, Marine Safety investigator Capt. Aaron Fletcher testified, noting that the speed limit to enter the jetty is about 5 mph. He said the boat left paint transfer on the rocks about 8 to 10 feet above the water, indicating to him that the boat went up the jetty and back down.
He testified that he believed King was impaired because King had 40-plus years of boating experience, was very familiar with the area, the route and the warning lights at the end of the jetty.
“In order for him to neglect his experience, to neglect his instrumentation and to neglect those cues,” Fletcher said he believed King had enough to be impaired.
King’s blood-alcohol content measured nearly twice the legal limit for driving, according to evidence presented during the hearing. Michael Balmer, King’s attorney, said after the hearing that the reading was high considering how much blood King had lost after the crash.
The injuries to all on board included broken ribs, facial fractures, concussions and foot and leg injuries, some of the passengers testified.
Barry Vince testified that a table had saved him from being thrown forward as a result of the crash. He then went upstairs to the fly deck and discovered that Correa’s head had been wedged into the console in front of the passenger seat.
“It looked like his neck was broken,” Vince testified Tuesday, adding that King was on the ground bleeding underneath the steering wheel with his head in a pool of blood partially in a walkway.
All of the passengers said King had been operating the vessel throughout the cruise, but when questioned by Balmer, they said they did not know if he was operating it at the time of the crash.
Jesse Howard, Cynthia’s husband, testified that after the impact he could still hear the motors running, so he went upstairs and grabbed some rope, tied it to the back of the boat and, with help from a fisherman, hopped off and tied the other side to “the largest rock I could find” on the jetty to keep the boat from moving away from the rocks before helping people off the boat.
Others, like Vince and Cynthia Howard, testified that after the crash, they saw water starting to come into the cabin.
“I remember water rushing up from the bottom of the boat toward my hand,” Cynthia Howard said. “We didn’t know what had just happened.”
A majority of the passengers, along with King, briefly lost consciousness as a result of the crash, they testified.
Prosecutors filed the charges against King in March, about nine months after the crash took place.
As the hearing was nearing its conclusion, Cole, the judge, made an observation which solicited some nods of agreement from the audience.
“This case has gotten really nasty for this community, hasn’t it?” she said. “I’m starting to see that. I’m guessing you were all friends before this. It’s a shame.”
After the hearing, Deputy District Attorney Tracy Sims agreed, calling the case “a tragic event where it does seem to be fracturing a harmonious community.”
Balmer after the hearing said the evidence showed his client was not at the controls at the time of the crash, noting he was found in a walkway to the left of the steering wheel and didn’t suffer injuries to his mid-section as someone would if they slammed into the steering wheel. King suffered injuries to the right side of his face. Balmer also called to question King’s admission of having two glasses of wine considering he had been knocked unconscious.
Balmer said some of the passengers changed their stories, possibly because of a civil lawsuit filed in relation to the crash.
He said he didn’t know who was at the wheel, but noted that a woman on board with boating experience was found underneath the wheel, while Correa was found to the right of the steering wheel.
King is scheduled to return to Long Beach Superior Court on Jan. 7 to enter a plea to the charges.