Jury deadlocked in trial of felon who caused fatality during street race in Rancho Mirage
A Murrieta jury today deadlocked in the retrial of a convicted felon involved in a street racing crash in Rancho Mirage that killed an 81-year-old woman, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial and setting the stage for a potential third murder trial.
After deliberating only a day, jurors declared themselves unable to overcome an impasse on a second-degree murder charge against 41-year-old Wade Klinton Wheeler of Rancho Mirage.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Stephen Gallon polled the jury, declaring the panel hopelessly deadlocked. He set a retrial status conference for May 10.
"Retrying the case is currently under consideration by our office, but a decision has not been made at this time,'' District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Amy McKenzie told City News Service.
It would be the third murder trial for the defendant, whose case will be returned to the Larson Justice Center in Indio for all further proceedings.
The defendant remains held on $1 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center. He was driving the car that smashed into Barbara Schmitz's sedan, fatally injuring her and severely injuring her husband, Gerald Schmitz, over a decade ago.
Wheeler was convicted in 2016 of gross vehicular manslaughter, engaging in an illegal speed contest, reckless driving with great bodily injury and a sentence-enhancing allegation of inflicting bodily injury on a person over 70 years old.
The Indio jury, however, hung on the murder charge. The panel found his co-defendant, 39-year-old Scott Daniel Bahls of Palm Springs, guilty of the same counts, and also hung 10-2 in favor of convicting him of murder.
Bahls later admitted the murder count and was sentenced to 16 years to life in state prison. But Superior Court Judge Anthony Villalobos -- at his own discretion and over prosecutors' objections -- suspended the sentence and instead imposed lifetime felony probation.
On June 18, 2013, the defendants engaged in a four-mile race that began on Date Palm Drive in Cathedral City. Witnesses reported seeing the two swerving through traffic and ``communicating to each other through their windows,'' according to the prosecution's trial brief.
"Both vehicles were seen either side-by-side or within a car length apart,'' the brief stated.
Gerald Schmitz was at the wheel of his and his wife's Ford Focus, with her in the front passenger seat, and initiated a left turn onto Highway 111 from Dunes View Road in Rancho Mirage when the defendants came barreling toward him in excess of 70 mph.
The speed limit through the area is 45 mph.
Wheeler's BMW plowed into the Ford midway through its turn, flipping the sedan into the air, after which it rolled several times before coming to rest in front of a gas station.
Barbara Schmitz was taken to Eisenhower Medical Center, where she died two hours after the crash. Gerald Schmitz suffered a brain hemorrhage, broken ribs and vertebra, along with fractures to the pelvis. He spent months recovering.
Wheeler broke his right leg.
"These two grown men were behaving like children,'' Deputy District Attorney Dan Fox told jurors in 2016. "They didn't want to hurt anyone. But that doesn't mean they're not murderers.''
The defendants' attorneys argued they weren't really trying to race and that Schmitz did not take precautions before initiating his turn at the busy intersection.
Wheeler has prior convictions for armed robbery and receiving stolen property.
