Verdict Found In Fatal Modjeska Motorcycle Crash

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA — A jury found Damon Ellery Block guilty of multiple felonies, including gross vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving in a crash that killed a Midway City motorcyclist in 2016.

Block was convicted Thursday of reckless driving with a specific injury, hit-and-run causing death and car theft, all felonies. Jurors, who deliberated for about a half-day, also upheld sentencing enhancements for fleeing the scene of the vehicular manslaughter.

Block is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 25.

Drew Ketter, 55 of Midway City, was killed in the crash, his wife, Joanne, sustained multiple broken bones in the collision.

Block stole a 1994 Honda Accord from a tow yard at 124 N. Sullivan St. just before noon on Aug. 1, 2016, according to Deputy District Attorney Brian Orue. The windows of the Accord were rolled down, and the key was inside.

Later that day, he was driving on a bike lane before veering onto the shoulder of southbound Santiago Canyon Road, when he began swerving toward oncoming traffic, Orue said.

The car collided with the motorcycle near Falcon Street as the Ketters left Cook's Corner, a popular restaurant for bikers, Orue said.

The Honda ended going up an embankment and Block ran away from the crash scene, the prosecutor said.

Police found numerous items in the car: a Lipton Brisk iced tea bottle, sunglasses, Marlboro cigarettes, a jar of olives and a bottle of Evian water, according to prosecutors.

Criminalists lifted Block's fingerprint from the tea bottle and found his DNA on the other items, he said. They also found the defendant's cell phone in the car.

Block's attorney, Michele Bell, conceded her client stole the car. As to the DNA, she said the only item with "no other DNA on it" was the iced tea bottle. All the other items had DNA from multiple people, she said, arguing that someone else could have been behind the wheel at the time of the collision.

Investigators could not work up the identification of the DNA on the car's steering wheel and gear shift, Bell said.

The attorney accused Orange County sheriff's deputies of a "rush to judgment... They had a suspect, and they went with it."

Bell also said some evidence such as 911 calls and initial police reports were destroyed in the case and accused deputies of failing to interview some witnesses.

Two hikers in the area told a sheriff's deputy they saw someone wearing black near the crash scene, and that they had handed him a water bottle, Bell said. Another witness responded to the crash as a good Samaritan, she added.

City News Service, Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig contributed to this report.