Witness: Horrific Day a 25-Ton Truck Crashed Through a Wall

In a morning of gripping testimony, punctuated by photos of mangled wreckage and tearing family members, a former employee of the described what it was like to see a 25-ton big rig barreling toward her at some 70 mph.

Melissa Watkins testified during the murder trial Monday that she and owner Peter Wannier stood near the window inside the former store when she suddenly heard something like a “thunderous, rolling, scraping train coming.’’

“I thought we were all going to die,’’ she said with a shaking voice, recounting the events of Apr. 1, 2009, when Costa’s out-of-control big rig lost it brakes, careened down Angeles Crest Highway and struck multiple cars before bulldozing into the bookstore.

Killed instantly were 12-year-old whose red Ford sedan was crushed beneath the 18-wheeler. Costa is charged with two counts of murder, felony reckless driving and vehicular manslaughter.

Watkins’ account is the trial’s first glimpse into what it was like that day inside the store, a chaotic swirl of smoke, flying debris and earsplitting screams as the few employees and customers ran for cover. At one point, she locked eyes with Costa, who looked “absolutely terrified,’’ she said, noting he franticly tried turning the wheel of the truck to avoid the impact – a point defense attorney Edward Murphy asked her to reiterate.

Murphy maintains Costa never should have been charged with murder, that this was a horrific accident and that his client, who’d only been driving for the last several miles of a trip down the mountainous Angeles Forest Highway from the Palmdale area did “everything under the sun’’ to try to stop the out-of-control rig. Deputy District Attorney Carolina Lugo has told the jury that Costa and fellow driver Jose Soares ignored signs forbidding trucks the size of Costa’s from driving on the narrow road, and that despite smoking brakes, Costa forged on with the drive down the mountain.

Inside the bookstore on Apr. 9, the stench of burning brakes and gasoline filled the air, Watkins told the court. Everyone thought the truck was going to explode.

“The whole building shuddered. I looked at all my fingers and toes and couldn’t believe they were all there,’’ she said.

Once she realized she wasn’t physically injured, Watkins said she and a manager tended to a woman with broken legs trapped in the rubble, who was “hysterically screaming.’’ When Watkins turned her focus onto Foothill Boulevard, and heard emergency workers sawing into cars, she “knew deep down people were dead.’’

Lugo then projected a photo of Angel Posca’s nearly unrecognizable Ford, an image that caused Yanette Posca, seated in the audience, to cover her mouth in quieted, chest heaving jags. One recognizable image was that of her daughter’s pink jacket. When Watkins saw that jacket the day of the accident, she knew a little girl had died, she testified, breaking into tears.  

Yanette Posca also testified Monday. She told the court that she did not get to see her daughter on Apr. 9, but talked to her on the phone. Angelina had gone to work with her dad in Long Beach that day. Despite the emotional difficulty in sitting through the trial, Posca told the deputy district attorney that she wants to be there.

“This is about my family. My family is gone,’’ she said.