Murder Trial: Truck Driver Didn't Understand All of Firefighter's Warning

The truck driver charged with two counts of murder in the 2009 big-rig accident told jurors Tuesday that he did not remember, or understand totally, a warning by an off-duty fire fighter that his brakes were smoking.

``He said that he told me twice to turn around and I do not agree,'' City News Service reported that Marcos Costa tesified. Costa has been on the witness stand since Thursday, with Deputy District Attorney Carolina Lugo having begun her cross examination Tuesday.

Costa, 46, is charged with two counts of murder, felony reckless driving and vehicular manslaughter stemming from the Apr. 1, 2009 wreck at Foothill Boulevard and Angeles Crest Highway. The brakes failed on Costa's 25-ton truck and barrled out of control down the Crest before plowing into the old . Killed in the accident were Palmdale residents Angel Posca, 58 and his 12-year-old daughter, Angelina.

Earlier in the trial, an off-duty firefighter, Juan Palomino, testified that he flagged down the truck and told Costa and his co-driver, Jose Soares, that the rig's brakes were smoking. On Tuesday, the Brazilian-born Costa, testified through a Portuguese interpreter that he did not understand all of what Palomino was saying. 

Costa told Lugo that he did not remember Palomino warning him that the car-carrying 18-wheeler was smoking, or that firefighter said he had never seen a truck that large on that part of the highway, City News reported.

``If he said that, I did not understand what he was saying," Costa said.

Costa's cross examination continues in Los Angeles Superior Court in Pasadena this morning. Please check back to LCF Patch for continuing trial coverage.