Bucci was also found guilty of causing great bodily injury to Immanuel's mother, 47-year-old Regina Jackson of Suisun City, who was driving the Toyota, and to another son, Jordan Callison, now 14, who was paralyzed from the waist down.
[...]
A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal unanimously rejected a series of appeal arguments raised by Bucci, including his contention that he lacked the implied malice or intentional recklessness needed to support a second-degree murder conviction.
The panel said there was substantial evidence for a finding of implied malice.
"Bucci was speeding up a hill going the wrong direction in a no-passing zone on a highway, where he could not see oncoming traffic on the other side of the hill and could not return to his correct lane because of the semi-trailers he was trying to pass," Justice Henry Needham wrote.
"Certainly a reasonable juror could conclude that the natural consequences of his conduct were dangerous to life and that his conduct endangered the lives of others - such as the occupants of any vehicle approaching from the other side of the crest of the hill," he wrote.
A motorist who approached the burning car said she had asked Bucci to help her pull out the driver, but that he had raised his hands in a gesture of futility and walked away.
