A judge began hearing evidence today — and was scheduled to hear more tomorrow —in the case of a 58-year-old Long Beach man charged with drunkenly slamming his boat into a jetty during a Fourth of July celebration, killing a local baseball coach and injuring several other people on board.
The preliminary hearing, held in front of a packed Long Beach courtroom on Tuesday, centered on who was driving the 48-foot sportfishing boat, called the Four Kings, during the violent collision.
Prosecutors allege that Kevin King was at the helm and was drunk as the boat headed back to dock around 9 p.m. after a sunset cruise on July 3, 2024. The wreck killed 59-year-old passenger John Correa, who was a well-liked volunteer baseball coach at Millikan High School.
King’s defense team has argued he was not the one driving when the boat crashed.
All seven witnesses who testified Tuesday said King was the only person they saw steering during the trip, which began around 6 p.m. One witness, Gareth Evans, said he saw King piloting the vessel in the moments before it hit the jetty head-on at what authorities estimated was more than 20 mph.
Erin Earlywine, another passenger that day, said she saw King drink a margarita about an hour before the crash, and she recalled seeing “two boxes full of bottles of liquor” aboard the boat and jokingly asked the group if they were instead going to Catalina Island for the night.
No witnesses could definitively answer how much King had to drink.
“He ate and drank, I wasn’t really keeping track,” said Jesse Howard, one of the passengers.
King is a well-known player in real estate investment in Los Angeles and Orange counties, having closed dozens of deals with a total value of over $120 million, according to an online real estate profile.
The charges against him — and ensuing high-powered legal battle — have been a topic of discussion among Long Beach’s wealthy and powerful. Many people involved are well-connected. Three judges, for instance, recused themselves from handling Tuesday’s hearing because of potential connections to witnesses or to King.
On Tuesday, the roughly 40-seat courtroom couldn’t hold all of the attendees for what is normally a routine hearing where a judge evaluates if there’s enough evidence for the case to go to trial. When the case couldn’t be moved to a bigger courtroom, a handful decided to remain in the hallway outside the courtroom, waiting to hear what took place.
Four passengers on the boat that night took the stand on Tuesday, answering in painstaking detail where they were on the boat and what happened after the crash.
One, Barry Vince, said he saw King with a red Solo cup in his hand before the trip began, but Vince said he did not know what King drank or how much.
Vince said he wondered if King was intoxicated because their route took the boat out past the breakwater, into rougher waters, an “odd” decision for their “happy hour” sunset cruise.
Howard said he was downstairs when the boat hit the jetty, and he quickly went on deck to take control and pilot it to a safe place where the passengers could unload.
Howard said he found King “directly under the steering wheel” and saw Correa “in the dash” with his “head in the cup holder.” Correa appeared “lifeless,” Howard said.
The collision was “pretty horrific, it was something that just came out of nowhere, and it threw everybody somewhere,” Howard said.
King’s defense lawyer, Michael Balmer, repeatedly quizzed witnesses on their knowledge of how much King drank, but much of the questioning focused on who was driving at the time of the crash.
The first rescuer to arrive at the jetty, Marine Safety Officer Devon Beebe, told Long Beach police officers that Correa — not King — was the driver. She later corrected that in her report, she testified, because she erroneously thought the steering wheel was on the right side of the boat, as it is in the rescue craft she usually drives.
Illustrating how widely connected the principals in the case are, Beebe confirmed under questioning that her dad played baseball with Correa when they were young, and she had previously met King through his niece, who Beebe said was her “good friend” in high school.
King could face up to 13 years in state prison if the charges stand and he’s convicted at trial.
In April, he pleaded not guilty to the counts: felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and operating a watercraft while under the influence. King also denied special allegations that he caused great bodily injury to seven people.
One of the witnesses, Dena Noble, said the crash broke multiple bones in the left side of her face and required surgery. Cynthia Howard said she broke three ribs and required stitches in her lip to repair a hole left by one of her teeth.
In court filings ahead of the preliminary hearing, defense attorney Michael Balmer asserted that King wasn’t driving and was not intoxicated on the night of the crash.
A blood draw after the wreck showed his blood-alcohol level was at .152%, but it’s unclear if a jury would ever hear that evidence. Balmer made a motion to suppress it, because King “was never cited, questioned, or advised of any criminal investigation at the scene or in transit.”
Judge Debra A. Cole has not yet ruled on that motion or a separate motion to suppress additional evidence that Balmer claimed a Long Beach Police detective obtained from the hospital without a warrant.
King remains out of custody on bail.
The preliminary hearing was scheduled to continue on Wednesday. This article will be updated with further developments.