LOS ANGELES >> An Italian newlywed’s honeymoon ended in a death ride on the hood of a Dodge Avenger driven by a man bent on revenge against a drug dealer who ripped him off, a prosecutor said.

Nathan Campbell was grinning and aiming for people as he weaved the sedan down the popular Venice Beach Boardwalk two years ago, taking out Alice Gruppioni and mowing down 17 other pedestrians, Deputy District Attorney Victor Avila said Thursday in opening statements in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Campbell was mad the dealer had made off with $35 and didn’t return with methamphetamine he and a friend had paid for, Avila said.

“Point them out, I’ll run them over,” Campbell told a witness, Avila said. “The defendant was angry as he went to his car.”

Campbell, 39, of Colorado, does not deny hitting the pedestrians at one of Los Angeles’ top tourist destinations. But his lawyer disputed the drug deal motive and said his client weaved to avoid people. He asked jurors not to convict Campbell of murder.

Campbell has pleaded not guilty to murder, 17 counts of assault with a deadly weapon and 10 counts of leaving the scene of an accident.

Campbell intentionally hopped a curb and squeezed past barriers before steering toward vendors and pedestrians, Avila said.

The prosecutor showed video of panicked pedestrians ducking into storefronts and running for the beach as the sedan barreled down the pathway at speeds up to 35 mph.

Millions of visitors from around the world are drawn to the funky mix of jugglers, musicians and dancers hustling for tips while merchants peddle hand-crafted art, tapestries and knickknacks. With a scent of pot — sold legally in nearby medical dispensaries — often permeating the surroundings, the vibe harkens back to its hippy past.

On Aug. 3, 2013, Gruppioni was honeymooning with her new husband from Bologna, Italy, among the throngs of people taking in the scene.

“You’re going to hear about the last day in the life of Alice Gruppioni,” Avila told jurors. “The evidence will show this defendant not only killed her, he murdered her.”

Gruppioni, 32, could be seen on a surveillance video standing on the walkway as the car suddenly appeared and struck her before disappearing into a sea of people.

She was carried 300 feet on the hood of the car and then rolled off, hitting the pavement. She died from head injuries.

Defense lawyer James Cooper III said Campbell took out tents, an ATM, a row of bikes and a mannequin, but swerved to dodge people, which is how Gruppioni fell off the car’s hood.

“From (the prosecution) perspective, they believe he was aiming at people,” Cooper said in his opening statement. “He’s actually avoiding hitting pedestrians.”

Cooper did not explain why Campbell drove on the walkway that is closed to cars. A previous defense lawyer in the case said the model of car was subject to a recall notice and that a faulty shift lever was to blame.

If Cooper presents that defense, experts are prepared to testify for the prosecution that there was nothing wrong with the shift, Avila said. He demonstrated through video that the car’s brakes and horn worked.

Witnesses said they never heard the horn or saw Campbell try to stop, Avila said.

Animation produced from surveillance showed how the car would have struck more pedestrians if they didn’t bolt.

“A lot more people could have died if they didn’t jump out of the way,” Avila said.

The driver left a path of casualties including merchants and people from England, France and China. He seriously injured three people before turning on a side street and vanishing.

Campbell, a transient with a history of petty crimes, surrendered to police in neighboring Santa Monica a couple of hours later.

“He said, ‘I’m the one you’re looking for. I’m the one who hit those people,’” Avila said.

Campbell was legally drunk and told officers he drank vodka after the incident. He had been fired two months earlier from managing a sobriety residence after abusing alcohol and drugs.

A bill designed to reduce deadly wrong-way freeway accidents has been passed by the Assembly.

The bill, Assembly Bill 162 by Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez, D-Montclair, was unanimously passed this week.

AB 162 directs Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol to update a 1989 study on the subject by taking into consideration technological advances and innovations over the last 26 years. They must submit the updated report to the Legislature by Jan., 1, 1917

Rodriguez cited the deadly accident in February 1914 in Diamond Bar in which a suspected drunken driver driving in the wrong direction on the 60 Freewayt caused an accident that killed six people.

A news release by Rodriguez’s office said there have been 1,500 wrong-way crashes since 2001 causing 270 deaths and nearly 1,700 injuries.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. >> NASA’s Mercury-orbiting spacecraft, Messenger, is going out with a bang this week, adding a hefty crater to the little planet closest to the sun.

The first spacecraft to circle Mercury, Messenger is expected to slip out of orbit and slam into Mercury on Thursday following a successful four-year tour of the rocky planet. The spacecraft will be traveling 8,750 mph (14,081 kph) when it hits, fast enough to carve out a crater 52 feet (16 meters) wide. The spacecraft itself stretches 10 feet (3 meters) solar wingtip to wingtip.

Messenger has run out of fuel, but ground controllers managed in recent weeks to eke out some extra life, raising Messenger’s orbit by dipping into helium gas reserves not originally intended for use as fuel. But now that’s all gone and Messenger is at the mercy of gravity.

“I guess the end is coming,” the Messenger team said via Twitter earlier this week. “After 10 years, spacecraft will end life as just another crater on Mercury’s surface.”

A look at Mercury’s soon-to-be-obliterated travel companion:

ROUNDABOUT FLIGHT

Messenger rocketed away from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in August 2004. It flew twice past Venus and three times past Mercury, before entering orbit around Mercury in March 2011. Only one other spacecraft, NASA’s Mariner 10, has ever visited Mercury, and that was back in the 1970s. Mariner 10 flew past, but did not orbit the innermost planet. The $427 million Messenger mission was developed and run for NASA by Johns Hopkins University.

SCIENCE DISCOVERIES

During its four years in orbit — comprising more than 4,000 laps — Messenger has revealed volcanic deposits at Mercury that are helping to explain the planet’s important eruptive and interior-melting past; polar caps of frozen water at or near the surface; and incredible global shrinkage thanks to a cooling interior. In addition, despite its proximity to the sun, Mercury is more abundant in volatile elements, like potassium and sulfur, than anticipated before Messenger’s arrival, according to Messenger’s principal investigator Sean Solomon, director of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Planetary scientists will be looking at Messenger’s huge stash of data “for years, probably for decades, as we try to understand the origin and evolution of Mercury,” Solomon said.

SUPER SUNSHADE

Messenger’s creators needed to keep the spacecraft cool during its super-hot mission at Mercury. “It’s an enormously hostile environment,” said Jim Green, director of planetary science for NASA. Designers came up with a novel sunshade of lightweight ceramic cloth. This sunscreen tolerated more than 600 degrees Fahrenheit (316 degrees Celsius) on the front, while keeping everything behind it at room temperature, including the seven scientific instruments. Messenger also regularly performed “an intricate dance” to balance all the infrared heat that was reflected off Mercury back at the spacecraft. At the same time, engineers equipped Messenger with numerous heaters to keep the fuel from freezing and the electronics from faltering when the spacecraft ducked behind the planet, away from the sun.

SMASHING END

On Thursday, Messenger is expected to crash into the side of Mercury facing away from Earth. So there will be no cameras or observatories to witness the impact. Scientists expect to gather information from Messenger until 10 to 15 minutes before its fatal plunge. The expected crash site is about two-thirds of the way up the planet, near the north pole. Mercury is the smallest planet — a little bigger than our moon.

UPCOMING AT MERCURY:

A pair of European and Japanese spacecraft will aim for Mercury following a 2017 launch from South America’s French Guiana. It will take seven years for the two satellites to reach Mercury and enter its orbit, in 2024. The mission is called BepiColombo after the late Italian scientist who came up with the calculations for repeated fly-bys of Mercury by Mariner 10.

A fleeing driver, who may be connected to a home-invasion robbery in Big Bear, allegedly rammed into a sheriff’s patrol vehicle Sunday.

Steven Mercado, 31, of Rancho Cucamonga, was severely injured Sunday after he reportedly ran from a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy from the Rancho Cucamonga station, who was investigating a stolen vehicle call, according to officials.

While speaking with a witness in the area of Ranch Gate and Hillside roads, the deputy noticed a black Hummer pass by which may have been involved in the crime he was investigating, according to a Sheriff’s Department statement.

The deputy attempted to stop the Hummer, but Mercado reportedly drove off at a high rate of speed.

The pursuit continued into a wash area where Mercado allegedly rammed the front of the deputy’s patrol unit, officials said.

Mercado continued east on Banyan Street approaching Sapphire Street. He reportedly made a right turn into a county flood control area, crashed into some large bushes on the passenger’s side sending the vehicle out of control.

The Hummer went through a chain link fence and fell about 12 feet onto its roof in a cement drainage culvert.

Mercado and two passengers were taken to hospitals with severe injuries. The deputy was not injured.

Deputies from the Big Bear station are investigating the trio’s possible involvement in a home invasion robbery in their city.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — UFC light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones ran from a crash that hospitalized a pregnant woman but quickly came back to grab “a large handful of cash” from the car, witnesses told police.

According to police, the accident occurred in southeastern Albuquerque just before noon Sunday when the driver of a rented SUV ran a red light. The driver, whom an off-duty officer identified as Jones, ran from the scene but then returned for the cash before fleeing again, police said.

“Witnesses stated he shoved the cash into his pants and ran north,” the report said

Albuquerque police were seeking an arrest warrant for Jones on Monday, saying he would likely face a felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident since the woman broke her arm in the crash.

Police said they have been unable to reach Jones or his lawyer.

Officers found a pipe with marijuana in the SUV as well as MMA and rental car documents in Jones’ name, according to the police report.

His agent, Malki Kawa, did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press.

Jones (21-1) is scheduled to defend his title against Anthony “Rumble” Johnson at UFC 187 in Las Vegas on May 23, headlining one of the promotion’s biggest shows of the year.

“We are in the process of gathering facts and will reserve further comment until more information is available,” the UFC said in a statement.

Although he is widely considered the world’s best pound-for-pound mixed martial artist, Jones has endured legal problems and questionable behavior as champion.

Jones was arrested in 2012 after crashing his Bentley into a telephone pole in Binghamton, New York. He had his driver’s license suspended after being charged with DWI, but did no jail time.

Last August, Jones and challenger Daniel Cormier were involved in a brawl in the lobby of the MGM Grand casino while appearing at a promotional event. Jones was fined $50,000 and ordered to do community service by the Nevada Athletic Commission.

In early December, Jones tested positive for metabolites of cocaine while training for his bout. Jones was allowed to compete because the test was conducted out of competition, and he beat Cormier at UFC 182.

When the failed drug test became public, Jones publicly apologized for a “mistake,” but spent just one day in a drug rehabilitation center before checking himself out.

Jones has defended his belt eight times since becoming the youngest champion in UFC history in March 2011.

Jones is a native of upstate New York, but lives in New Mexico and works under prominent local trainer Greg Jackson. Jones has two brothers who play in the NFL.

Albuquerque is a hub for MMA fighters who train at Jackson’s gym and use the city’s high altitude to prepare for bouts.

POMONA >> A motorcycle passenger was killed in a crash on the 57 Freeway on Sunday, authorities said.

The crash, which happened about 1:40 p.m. on the southbound side of the freeway at the junction with the westbound 10 Freeway, also injured the motorcycle operator, who was airlifted from the scene, according to authorities.

The passenger, who was not immediately identified, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The crash closed all southbound lanes of the freeway for about an hour, after which a single lane was reopened. All lanes were reopened just after 4 p.m., according to the California Highway Patrol.

It was the second time in as many days that a motorcycle passenger was killed in a crash on a Los Angeles area freeway.

A 19-year-old Los Angeles woman died when the motorcycle on which she was a passenger crashed into other vehicles while splitting lanes on the northbound 5 Freeway approaching Garfield Avenue, according to the CHP.

That crash, which closed three northbound lanes of the 5 freeway for about four hours, happened just about the same time of day as Sunday’s fatal wreck.

Following an internal probe, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has imposed unspecified discipline on a veteran deputy who fatally struck a cyclist with his patrol car in Calabasas 15 months ago as he was typing on his in-car computer, officials said.

Deputy Andrew Wood hit and killed prominent entertainment attorney Milton Olin Jr. in the bicycle lane on Mulholland Highway on Dec. 8, 2013. Wood was returning from a fire call at Calabasas High School and was responding to a message from another deputy on his mobile digital computer at the time, authorities said.

Wood is still employed as a sheriff’s deputy, though he transferred from patrol to the courts division shortly after the incident, having made the request about a year earlier.

“I can’t get into the specifics about the administrative action taken because it’s a personnel matter,” department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said. “Administrative action was taken, and he’s exercising his civil service rights … through the (county’s) Civil Service Commission.”

The commission serves as the administrative appellate body for employees “who have received major disciplinary actions, such as discharges, reductions, suspensions in excess of five days,” according to the commission’s website.

The discipline, which was imposed at the end of March, arose out of a sheriff’s internal affairs investigation that examined whether the 17-year veteran violated department policies in the collision. The internal probe, which has been described as a routine procedure following criminal investigations, was launched after the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges against the deputy in August.

Officials with the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, which represents more than 7,000 deputies and district attorney investigators working in the county, had no comment Thursday.

The decision on Wood’s discipline came just weeks after the department — the largest sheriff’s agency in the nation — implemented a new policy significantly curbing the use of mobile digital computers in patrol cars.

That policy, which was the department’s first explicit restrictions on such devices, now prohibits the use of mobile digital computers while driving unless the communication is urgent or necessary for officer safety or unless it is to hit one button to send a status update such as “en route” or “acknowledge.” Deputies are also required to rely on their radio as the primary mode of communication while driving, the policy states.

Previously, only general directives were issued on safe driving, including the need to employ defensive driving techniques to prevent a collision and avoid operating vehicles “in an unsafe or negligent manner.”

Distracted drivers of police cars, firetrucks and ambulances — who often spend a disproportionate amount of their time on the road — were to blame in collisions that killed Olin in 2013 and two Southland residents in 2012, according to data from the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System that is run by the California Highway Patrol.

The number of crashes involving distracted emergency vehicle drivers who were at fault on public roads increased by more than 120 percent between 2003 and 2013, coinciding with a meteoric rise in technology, according to the data. The use of electronic equipment such as in-car computers was cited as a factor in at least 48 such collisions in 2013, up from some 26 cases in 2012.

Deputies are allowed to contest any discipline decisions with their division chief and, if they are not satisfied, request a hearing before the Civil Service Commission, said Sgt. Jospeh Jakl of the sheriff’s Risk Management Bureau.

“I can’t speculate on what he should get — it’s just very unfortunate,” Jakl said of Wood. “He will always have that in his mind that he caused the death of someone who was just riding their bike. I think that’s bad enough, and he has to live with that burden.”

Olin’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county, the Sheriff’s Department and the deputy in July. The case is in the discovery phase, and a trial date has been tentatively set for Jan. 19, said attorney Alan Van Gelder, who is representing Olin’s family.

The DA’s office declined to press charges against Wood in August, noting state law does not prohibit officers who are driving from using an electronic wireless communications device in the performance of their duties.

BREA >> A canyon road connecting Orange and San Bernardino counties was closed Saturday and would probably remain closed into Sunday morning after a vehicle crashed into a utility pole, snapping it and taking down power lines.

No one was injured when the vehicle left the road and slammed into the wooden pole about 10 a.m. on Carbon Canyon Road, also known as Highway 142, near Olinda Road, said Brea police Lt. Bill Smyser.

A utility crew was at the scene making repairs and both directions of the road were closed between Santa Fe Avenue and the county line, Smyser said.

That stretch of the road, a major commuter route on weekdays, wasn’t expected to reopen before 2 a.m., Smyser said.

POMONA >> A resident died after being hit by a car and the suspected driver was arrested after fleeing the scene, police said Saturday.

Lindsey Ann Prieto, 30, of Pomona was in a crosswalk at Garey Avenue and Rio Rancho Road about 8:30 p.m. Friday when she was hit by a vehicle, according to Pomona police. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.

Witnesses described the vehicle to police, who tracked the car to a home in Ontario. Police did not provide the address, and it was not listed in the booking records of the man who was arrested — Christopher Acosta, 29, of Ontario.

Booking records indicate Acosta was arrested at the Pomona Police Department just before 2 a.m. Saturday.

He was booked into the Pomona jail on suspicion of felony hit and run causing injury or death, according to police.

Acosta’s bail was set at $50,000. He is scheduled to appear Tuesday in Pomona Superior Court.