Woman convicted of murdering a CHP officer seeks new trial

September 9, 2011

Kaylee Weisenberg

Kaylee Weisenberg was scheduled to be sentenced in a San Luis Obispo Superior Courtroom Thursday morning when her attorney motioned for a new trial.

Judge John Trice scheduled a hearing on the motion for a new trial for Dec. 15.

A jury convicted Weisenberg, 23, of second-degree murder and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in August.

Weisenberg crashed into and killed CHP Officer Bret Oswald while driving on South River Road on June 27, 2010. The jury concluded that Weisenberg was under the influence of methamphetamine when she crossed a double yellow line and hit Oswald, who was attending to a disabled vehicle.

Weisenberg hired San Diego attorney Angelyn Gates to review transcripts of the trial.


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Cindy BS. You are condoning the fact that well to do people get off. I agree with you and it is BS too. I think you are going down the wrong road here. The woman is a dirtbag and should be treated as same. She killed someone and now it’s time to pay the price. When well to do people do similar crimes they become dirtbags also and should be treated the same.

Your efforts should be directed towards the fact that well to do do people are definetly treated different and that is not right. This is were the system fails and it needs to be corrected.

The new attorney is also a dirtbag for trying to free this killer.


I’m saying that she is guilty of manslaughter. That is not letting her off, it carries a stiff sentence. I bet if you or I or any average citizen are driving at 10 miles over the speed limit and hit somebody on the side of the road after rounding a blind curve that we will not be charged with murder2 even if we are DUI (which I question in her case). More than one LEO has said that after passing the FST, they believe she would not have been driving impaired. Those tests aren’t as easy to pass as we think they are. The officer isn’t actually looking at what we think they are looking at. Which is why bystanders are often surprised when a person fails who they think passed.


DUI with death resulting usually results in a charge and conviction or plea of gross vehicular manslaughter.


The wealthy or kids with parents of means don’t even get charged with that, as we have seen with Judge LaBarbara. I’m not saying it’s unfair because the wealthy are charged with less, I’m saying it’s not fair because murder2 isn’t what anyone is usually charged with.


Sure, Cindy, but what if the average citizen was also driving on a suspended license at the time plus had three previous suspended licenses and caused four previous accidents all in five or six years??? And, I’m sure that Kaylee could have agreed to manslaughter if she wanted to.


All the way around this is very sad. It’s hard to kick your heals up and be happy about this one. But hopefully she will learn something from this.


That attorney is incredibly good… wonder how she afforded Miss Gates


Some one loves her. she has family .?


Frankly, I think it’s a bit late for a “top notch” attorney but maybe attorney Gates can find what she needs to turn this around. No doubt, she likely took this travesty of justice at a discounted fee. The murder2 charge was over the top and this was about who Kaylee W is and who she “accidently” killed. When “perceived” poor white trash kills a cop in this county, it’s not the same as it would be for an average citizen who has money, knows people or kills an average citizen. This girl was railroaded in my opinion because we don’t like her and she uses a drug that we all HATE. To hell with the fact that she passed a CHP field test and was found not to be under the influence, we hate meth and we know she used it therefore she was DUI, regardless of the facts. If I were an attorney, I would take her case pro-bono.


The local court will no doubt deny a new trial and then this attorney will have to convince a higher court that there is evidence or wrong doing that if exposed would have caused the jury to deliver a different verdict. That isn’t an easy task to convince a panel of judges of.


I have no doubt that Ms W has already experienced a life altering change and will probably never use drugs again or speed in her car. Putting a 22 year old in prison for 15 years to life with the knowledge that most people with that sentence are never released makes no sense. She was guilty of manslaughter not murder. Has anyone ever looked at what people do to be convicted of “second degree murder”? You don’t get charged with a crime like that for having an accident even if you were irresponsible for speeding. She deserves manslaughter just like anyone else would be sentenced to who committed the same crime


I see and understand you point Cindy but the fact is, she killed a cop. Closed case.


Don’t get me wrong Cindy, I kind of agree with you, I do feel bad for this woman. I’m not sure if she will receive a justified sentence or not. I really don’t have a set opinion one way or the other.


“I have no doubt that Ms W has already experienced a life altering change and will probably never use drugs again or speed in her car”


Wasn’t she have a prior DUI? I might be wrong but I believe she did. Many years ago I knew a young woman with a similar story but she didn’t kill a cop she killed a mother. This girl didn’t get such a harsh sentence as this young woman got. I remember being a party and the woman that I knew was still on probation and she was drinking again and then she was trying to drive home. Sometimes if a person has a real bad drinking/drug problem they need to be locked up if not for anything other reason but simply to keep the public safe. So my point is, even with a life altering change that may not necessarily stop her addiction. Many people that go to rehab still can’t kick their addition. Case in point, Amy Winehouse. But it does seem like conviction was excessive, perhaps because of priors?


I don’t know, you might be right, I really don’t know enough about her or her case. The whole story just makes me sad.


“Wasn’t she have” Huh?


Humm, not sure how to answer that!! What did yah say??? ;)


But I will answer another one of your other questions that I know the answer to. I looked at her criminal record, which includes driving citations but not DMV records. I have free access to one of those back ground check sites so it’s not a big deal for me to look at people’s records except DMV is not allowed.


No she didn’t have any DUI’s. She had some minor accidents and she had too many of them and ended up with the DMV suspending her license. Then she got caught driving anyway so the DMV took away her license for an extended period of time. She also had a minor traffic violation for failure to stop before making a right turn on a red. There was at least one accident where the people claimed minor injuries but that could have been for free insurance $$, hard to say.


She didn’t show up at court for the driving on a suspended license and she didn’t pay her traffic ticket or show up for that either so the judge issue to failures to appear and a warrant. Then it would appear that she drove again on a suspended license and killed a human being.


These are the only charges that appear on her court records.


PC 192(c)(1) Gross Veh Manslaughter. Her original charge that hasn’t been updated to Murder2


VC 14601.1 (A) Driving on a DL suspension


VC 14601(A) DL suspension for negligent operation of a vehicle and At fault accident with injuries


VC 21453(B) right turn on red, failure to yield.


The failures to appear should be on here, I saw them in the past, I don’t know why they are gone. Maybe because she finally appeared LOL


I went back to the early articles about this accident. I was curious if “unlisted” (the post by him) was right when he/she said that Kaylee could have taken a plea deal for MS. It was very interesting but there is a twist that I’ll save for another time and post. Hopefully there will be a few readers with legal backgrounds that will answer some questions about it.


In the mean time…. I noticed something else that I had missed in the past and as a result, I’m having to reconsider my perception of this 22 year old. Originally, we all heard that she learned she was pregnant when she went to the hospital on June 27 after the accident. I naturally assumed that she must be no more than maybe 6 weeks along. I mean, in this day and age ,who goes around wondering if they are pregnant, most woman make that determination in the privacy of their bathroom within a couple of day’s after the alarm goes off.


I knew she had her baby in prison and I assumed it had been born in early spring. Oh boy, was I ever dead wrong , she delivered her “full term” baby around Nov 1st. My God, she was 5 months pregnant when she was tested at the hospital and she had been smoking METH! That stuff is highly addictive and no doubt if she was smoking it on June 26, she had been smoking it though out the previous 5 months of her pregnancy! I don’t know but I think the DA was right. She doesn’t care about anything or anyone. It’s all about Kaylee and what she wants to do. She doesn’t care if she delivers an innocent child who will have to make their way through life with a diminished intellect or emotional/mental illness or whatever might be wrong with that child, she doesn’t care.


I now know she didn’t care if she was driving too fast on that road that day. She knew she could actually cause a serious accident on that road, I really think she realized that she was driving reckless and putting other’s at risk. (I also read that she drove that road frequently at high speeds to blow off steam) I think it did register but she didn’t care, it was all about Kaylee that day, just like the DA said. What else can I think knowing what she did to her baby , it’s a good thing she was in jail the last 4 months of the little one’s gestation. I heard the infant appears to be healthy.


So I guess I think you’re right. She might as well spend a long time in prison. As much as young children need their mother (she now has two), they are much better off without that mother.


“Humm, not sure how to answer that!! What did yah say??? ;)”


LOL, I know, that post was a mess. Not sure if I was tired or as usual just typing faster than my ability without proof reading.


Thanks for the info Cindy, you are a regular Sherlock Holmes. Karen should add you to the staff.


It’s so sad to hear about her pregnancy. That poor child is going to have it rough no matter what but as you said at this point her children will be better off without thier mom. The best scenario for the children would be for them to have a good relative that can care for them. Although the baby tested okay there’s a very good chance that when the child starts school that she/he will display either learning or/and psychological problems due to her mother’s drug use during the mothers pregnancy.


As I said, this is just a sad story all the way around. For the safety of her children and the community she needs to be in prison or jail.


LOL, LOL, Don’t worry about your posts, they are always fine. We all have typo’s from time to time. What I was referring to when I said I didn’t know what you said was the attachment you added to your post ; “Wasn’t she have” Huh?” I knew you were adding a question but I didn’t have the slightest idea what it was. When I do things like that, I e-mail George and have him fix it for me before anyone see’s it , so don’t think you’re the only one that has your 6 fingered moments ;)


I didn’t realize how long my two posts were, geeezzz! I sure did tell you everything I found out, so I bet I answered the question by default ! Yes, I did do a bit of research but I do it (on occasion) for a living and it only takes me all of 3 minutes to access an online background record when a person has a first name that is spelled odd and a last name that isn’t all that common. I got lucky on the rest and it was all located in two KSBY reports that were well titled, but to do what Karen does for a living, noooooooooo, investigative reporters make too many “unscrupulous ” people very very angry!!