Prosecutor to Charge Halberstam Driver

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Associated Press
Friday, June 22, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO, June 21 -- A graduate student who drove David Halberstam when the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist was killed in a car crash will be charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, the prosecutor said Thursday.

Kevin Jones, 26, a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley's journalism school, was driving Halberstam to an interview with football legend Y.A. Tittle on April 23 when the fatal accident happened in Menlo Park, south of San Francisco.

An investigation showed that Jones made an illegal left turn into the path of a car that had the green light. That car crashed into the passenger side of the car in which Halberstam was riding, San Mateo County District Attorney James Fox said in a statement.

Jones will be charged next week, Fox said, but he did not elaborate on why charges will be brought.

An autopsy showed that Halberstam, who was wearing a seat belt, died almost instantly when a broken rib punctured his heart, police said.