Jury deadlocks in Ferrari crash case

Driver who crashed rare auto in Malibu was accused of stealing expensive cars.

By Jill Leovy and Richard Winton
Times Staff Writers

November 4, 2006

Bo Stefan Eriksson, 44, driver of the red Ferrari that crashed in Malibu earlier this year, got a respite from the law Friday when a jury deadlocked on auto theft and other charges.

The Swedish ex-felon was in orange jail fatigues, with his wife watching, when Judge Patricia Schnegg declared a mistrial in the case after jurors voted 10 to 2 for a guilty verdict. Eriksson grinned toward onlookers as he was escorted away to meet with his lawyers.

Prosecutors almost immediately said they will retry Eriksson on the theft and related charges. He faces a separate trial, which could begin as early as next week, on a gun charge.

Eriksson had already agreed to a plea agreement on drunk driving charges related to the spectacular crash of his 2003 red Ferrari Enzo, reportedly worth $1 million. Police believe he was going 162 mph when he crashed on Pacific Coast Highway on Feb. 21.

The images of the mangled Ferrari on the dusty Malibu roadside seemed to capture a spirit of debauched wealth and excess in Los Angeles, as if a Stradivarius violin had been smashed at a drunken beach party.

The contrast between the protagonist's dark past and his nationality gave the event an added touch of absurdity. Also fanning public interest in the case were the murky events surrounding the crash, such as the inexplicable appearance of men identifying themselves as Homeland Security officials, and Eriksson's insistence that a mysterious man named Dietrich had been behind the wheel.

After the crash, Eriksson's possession of two other cars came under scrutiny. Deputies searching his Bel-Air house turned up a gun, which the nine-time felon, who has criminal convictions in Sweden for forgery, narcotics and firearms offenses, allegedly cannot possess legally.

The case in which the jury deadlocked Friday dealt with auto theft and embezzlement charges. Eriksson, former executive of a bankrupt company, had been accused of transferring ownership of two cars, a black Enzo and a McLaren Mercedes-Benz, to employees, then shipping them abroad in violation of lending contracts.

Prosecutors called it a sophisticated scheme to spirit away the two valuable cars. But Eriksson's defense attorney, Jim Parkman, said the banks had finessed a civil disagreement into criminal courts out of self-interest, and that their contracts with Eriksson were more like purchase agreements than leases.

"I thought the jury did a great job trying to figure out this case, Parkman said after the jury deadlocked. "I was very pleased with the nature of the outcome."