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Twice-Convicted Drunk Driver Charged With Murder Of Good Samaritan

SANTA ANA (CBS) — A twice-convicted drunken driver was arrested Tuesday on murder and DUI charges stemming from a Feb. 13 car crash in Laguna Niguel that killed a pedestrian who was looking for the owner of a stray dog.

Adam Harrison Hall, 27, of Placentia, is also charged with driving under the influence causing bodily injury, with sentence-enhancing allegations of causing bodily injury and causing great bodily injury or death to more than one victim.

Hall was northbound on Moulton Parkway about 11:10 a.m. when he drove his Ford sport utility vehicle through a red light at Nueva Vista Drive and crashed into a Toyota SUV, according to prosecutors.

The Ford jumped the curb and slammed into 48-year-old Mara Lynnes Steves on the sidewalk, according to prosecutors. Steves was trying to find the owner of a stray Labrador retriever named Max. The animal had to undergo emergency veterinary care, but survived.

Hall was allegedly under the influence of multiple anti-anxiety, sedative and sleeping medications, as well as methamphetamine, according to prosecutors.

Hall pleaded guilty to misdemeanor driving under the influence of drugs charge on March 3, 2008, and was sentenced to three years of informal probation and ordered to complete a three-month, first-offender alcohol awareness program, as well as participate in an anti-drunken driving panel through Mothers Against Drunk Driving, according to prosecutors.

Hall was arrested again on May 8, 2008, and pleaded guilty in October of that year to misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years of informal probation and was ordered to complete a 180-day drug and alcohol program and an 18-month multiple offender alcohol program, according to court records.

At that time, Hall was warned he could be charged with murder if he killed someone while driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, prosecutors said.

Hall is being held on $1 million bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.

Hall faces up to 21 years to life in prison if convicted.

 (©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

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