Court Won't Review Conviction in Crash That Killed Encino Resident

The California Supreme Court refused today to consider the case against a Northridge man convicted of second-degree murder and other charges for deliberately driving into a group of people in Reseda after a fight at a party, killing an Encino resident and injuring two other people.

The state's highest court, without comment,  denied a defense petition seeking review of the case against Marquis Dejon Jiles, who was found guilty in March 2010 of second-degree murder for the April 20, 2008, death of Maziar Tehrani, 29, of Encino.

Jiles also was convicted of two counts of attempted murder involving two other people who were struck. Jiles got into a friend's Toyota Scion after a fight outside the party, drove down the street, made a U-turn and struck the three. In September, a three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld Jiles' conviction.

Jiles initially lied to the police about not driving the car, then denied intentionally hitting any of the victims, according to the appeals court panel's Sept. 13 ruling. The appellate court justices found "sufficient evidence to support an inference that appellant intended to kill everyone in the kill zone as appellant created a zone of harm by accelerating and veering the car toward the group standing next to his principal target,'' who was injured. Jiles fled on foot after the crash and was arrested soon afterward. He is serving a 28-year-to-life sentence in state prison.

–City News Service.