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A San Mateo County jury rejected attempted murder charges Friday against a San Mateo man accused of running down several teenagers with his car after a prank that went awry four years ago — opting instead to convict the 23-year-old man on a series of lesser felony charges.
On the third day of deliberations, the jury found Omeed Adibi guilty of five counts of assault with a deadly weapon, as well as five counts of hit and run causing injury, all felonies, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
In doing so, the panel found Adibi not guilty of the most serious charges of attempted murder in the February 2020 attack.
Adibi was accused of driving his black Mercedes SUV into a group of five boys ages 12 or 13, all of whom were walking on a sidewalk along Howard Avenue in Burlingame. One of the boys suffered a traumatic brain injury, while another boy’s spine was injured and his lungs bruised, authorities said. Two other boys suffered foot fractures.
Prosecutors claimed the attack was in retaliation for a prank that Adibi pinned on a group of the group of boys. In reality, authorities said the prank had been carried out by Adibi’s own friends, who allegedly put animal feces inside his car the day before the crash. Adibi was 18 at the time of the crash.
The verdict capped a weekslong trial that alternated between harrowing testimony by the boys who were bowled over by Adibi’s car, and hours of analysis by psychologists who mused about Adibi’s mental state around the time of the crash.
One of the boys recalled hearing the sound of Adibi’s car getting louder as it sped toward the group of boys — leading to a collision that left him bloodied and in a back brace. The boy — who was a soccer player at the time — was never the same, suffering frequent headaches, along with pain and numbness in his leg.
The boy’s also tearfully mother recalled her son’s 13-day hospital stay after the crash, lamenting that “his confidence was no longer the same.” Whenever cars sped by, the boy would get scared and anxious, all while encountering flashbacks of the attack.
Yet clinicians called by Adibi’s attorneys focused heavily on a slew of mental conditions that Adibi faced at the time of the collision, which appeared to fuel the teen’s impulsivity, irritability, lack of focus and depressive mood and suicidal thoughts.
About two years before the crash, a psychologist diagnosed Adibi with bipolar disorder or cyclothymia, a mood disorder that’s considered less extreme than bipolar disorder, in addition to ADHD. A psychiatrist agreed — adding that Adibi’s symptoms were severe enough to cause difficulties in life. And while Adibi showed some improvements with medications, he continued to suffer from numerous symptoms, the psychiatrist testified.
Check back for updates to this developing report.
Originally published at Jakob Rodgers, Nollyanne Delacruz