Winslow wrong turn leads to prison

If not for an odd confluence of events that included a car accident, a small-town festival, a GPS unit that could not spot street closures, and a wrong-way drive down a one-way street, the Norwegian man and his mother would have had an uneventful drive from Los Angeles to Chicago.

Instead, John Kristoffer Larsgard, 33, faces 7½ years in an Arizona prison, largely as a result of some erratic driving that frightened and angered people at the Winslow street festival. Prosecutors said Larsgard turned his car into a weapon, hitting one woman, causing minor injuries and narrowly missing many others.

A frenzied, 8-minute ordeal ended up with Larsgard facing 36 criminal counts, including attempted second-degree murder.

In Norway, a country gripped by the terror trial of a man involving a bombing/shooting spree that killed 77, Larsgard's case is grabbing headlines portraying him as a man unfairly imprisoned for bad driving.

What began simply with a wrong turn on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, would escalate into a confusing series of events in which prosecutors would claim they put away a man with a troubled past, and the county attorney would receive death threats e-mailed, most likely, from half a world away.

* * *

On a sunny September morning, Liv Larsgard was driving with her son in his Volvo on Interstate 40 toward Chicago, where John Larsgard was to testify in a civil suit involving a 2002 incident in which he had been badly injured and needed neck surgery.

They were diverted into Winslow by a flashing dashboard light on their normally reliable Volvo. The car, Liv said, "didn't feel right. I had to stop."

A moment's confusion at the off-ramp, though, caused her to hit the rocky median and damage the Volvo, and they had to head back to Flagstaff to find a rental car.

They then had to return to Winslow to recover their belongings from the Volvo, which had been towed.

When they got there, the town's 13th annual Standin' on the Corner festival -- inspired by lyrics from the second verse in the 1972 Eagles song "Take It Easy" -- was in full swing, with music, vendors and food tents.

Faced with numerous street closures, the Larsgards, as well as the Toyota Camry rental car's GPS, soon were lost. At one point, John found himself driving west on eastbound Second Street, also known as Old Route 66.

And it is here where events, and any agreement as to what happened next, go south and John got himself into serious trouble. In a span of about 8 minutes, he became either a confused motorist or a threatening attacker, apprehended when Winslow police officers, guns drawn, approached his car, pulled his mother away and handcuffed him.

Liv and her son's defense attorney, Criss Candelaria, speak of a panicked John Larsgard who merely wanted to get away from a seething crowd.

"I thought the big question was: 'Why would this guy want to hurt anyone?'" Candelaria said. "He was just passing through and wanted to get the hell out of town."

But witnesses and the prosecution describe an enraged motorist who refused pleas to turn around and instead screamed at pedestrians and drove as if aiming to hurt someone.

Navajo County Attorney Brad Carlyon said John drove toward one man and clipped a woman. Neither was seriously hurt.

"It was a case of bizarre, aggressive driving behavior," Carlyon said. "He was gesturing, he was yelling. People were getting out of the way for fear of being hurt."

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Though bystanders waved and screamed at John Larsgard as he drove the wrong way, Liv said she could see the auto business where their belongings were. So, they decided to keep going. She got out and walked alongside, trying to explain to people why they just needed to go a little further.

"They became so angry, like we were trying to hurt someone," she said.

John, however, said Thursday during an interview with 12 News from Navajo County Jail in Holbrook, that he had no idea he was on a one-way street. With the windows up and the radio on, he thought his mom was getting directions.

When angry people surrounded the car as her son pulled into a lot next to the auto-body shop, Liv said, the two became fearful.

John put the car into reverse, intending to return to the one-way street and continue in the same direction. But as he backed up, he saw a car coming toward him. He "pressed the gas a little too hard," he said, and the Toyota jumped the opposite curb and popped a tire.

Defense attorney Candelaria said the rear of the car approached a food stand on the sidewalk, and "people went nuts." John pulled away, unaware, he said, that anything was amiss.

Witnesses, however, would later tell police and prosecutors that John was making threats, and when he backed across the curb, his bumper nudged a pole of the food tent, dangerously close to the woman and children operating the stand.

In the interview with Channel 12, John said he never made threats and was not aware he'd almost backed into a food tent until days later when informed of the charges.

Michael Mendoza, father of the children, ran after John, according to court documents, following the car through a parking lot, down an alley and onto a side street, where John pulled over after traveling about 175 feet.

As people approached, John rolled down the window, and Mendoza punched him in the face. Mendoza told an investigator from the Navajo County Attorney's Office it was clear the driver was not going to get out of the car.

"Oh, just out of instinct I just hit him," Mendoza said, according to court documents. "I punched him with a closed left hand … right in the face."

Seeing her son's face covered in blood, Liv's fear escalated into horror.

"I never thought something like this could happen in a free country, not in 2011," she said. "Until then, the people of Winslow had been so nice, helping us with the car and at the hospital. After that, nothing but bad things."

John said he panicked, pressing the gas and throwing the car into gear with only one thought on his mind -- escaping his attacker. He said it was difficult to drive in pain, blood pouring from his nose.

According to witnesses and police reports, John pulled away, swerving toward several people as he made a U-turn. Mendoza told investigators the driver tried to hit him.

"He floors it toward me," Mendoza said. "I jumped out of the way just barely."

Theda Curley told investigators she was struck by the car as she ran toward a nearby group of children she thought were in danger. The car hit her knee and clipped her big toe as she was spun to the ground.

John apologized Thursday, blaming his state of mind for his erratic driving.

Defense attorney Candelaria said, "All he wanted to do was get out as quickly as possible."

By this time, Winslow police had 911 calls from witnesses and Liv Larsgard, who called to report the assault.

In a dashboard video recording from the Winslow Police Department, the dispatcher can be heard saying, "We've got a vehicle who's driving crazy, he just hit somebody."

Minutes later, officers rolled up to the Larsgards' parked Camry. On the video, six officers approach the car, three with guns aimed at John.

* * *

John originally was charged with 36 counts, ranging from attempted second-degree murder to disorderly conduct.

"He has a history of aggressive behavior," said Navajo County Attorney Carlyon, whose investigators unearthed police reports relating to John in Alabama, Illinois and California.

Those incidents included threats, an alleged stalking of a young girl, an attempted suicide and a run-in with a Los Angeles bicyclist in which John was accused of running over the man's bicycle in a fit of anger. Not all the incidents resulted in charges, and none resulted in a conviction.

The case drew the attention of Norwegians when a reporter from VG, the country's largest newspaper, wrote about the trial in March. Eirik Mossven, the newspaper's U.S. correspondent, said he was captivated by the case as soon as he heard about it.

"It's like something out of a movie or a novel," he said.

Even as headlines are dominated by the trial of accused mass killer Anders Behring Breivik , Mossven said his video of the Larsgard case has drawn more than 500,000 views.

"The main issue here is, did Mr. Larsgard seek to injure or kill people, or has he given a reason to believe he is an innocent caught up in an unusual event?" Mossven said. "Obviously, the judge and jury didn't believe a word of his story."

On March 27, after six days of testimony, jurors took two hours to return a guilty verdict on seven counts, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. On Tuesday, John Larsgard was sentenced to 7½ years in prison, half of the time offered in plea negotiations.

"I've been a prosecutor 23 years and a county attorney for two terms in Apache County, and never have I seen such indifference in the truth-finding process," Candelaria said.

One witness praised the outcome. Teresa Gonzalez, 50, who said John threatened to kill her when she shouted at him that he was going the wrong way, thought the sentence was adequate but hopes he is deported upon release.

Shayna Patterson, who said she skinned her knee as she ran to her stroller while John drove erratically, worries that Winslow is being mistakenly portrayed by Norwegian media.

"We're a group of really friendly people, and everybody's making us out to be this mob attacking people, attacking tourists," she said. "That's not true at all."

Carlyon said that since the verdict, he has received e-mails threatening him and his family, most of them, he believes, from Norway.

* * *

As Candelaria ponders his client's legal future, one thing is clear: He will receive no legal assistance from Norway.

The Scandinavian country will not intervene in another country's legal matters, said George Orlander, honorary Norwegian consul in Phoenix.

"In a case like this, all I can do is visit and offer support," said Orlander, who called John Larsgard's condition in solitary confinement "horrific." "Norway is very respective of local law. We cannot as a country intervene, any more than we would want the U.S. to intervene in our jurisdiction."

As John awaits transfer to the Arizona prison system, his mother dreads returning to her nursing job in Oslo. The second she steps on the plane, she said, she will feel as if she is abandoning her son. "This is all my fault," she said. "I am the one who had the accident. If that had not happened, none of this would have happened. Now, he is losing seven years of his life because of me."

Arizona Republic reporter Richard Ruelas and 12 News reporter Trisha Hendricks contributed to this article.

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