NORTH CAROLINA MAN WHO STRUCK AND KILED WAS TALKING ON CELL PHONE

A man who allegedly struck and killed a Rocklin police officer while driving drunk told a jury he was text-messaging on his cell phone with a woman friend at the time. Eric Kenneth Dungan is facing a variety of charges, including second-degree murder, in the Oct. 9, 2005, death of Officer Matthew Redding.

Dungan, 26, told a Placer County Superior Court jury Thursday that he was "looking up periodically" from his cell phone while driving. The prosecutor said Dungan also had been listening to music on headphones and had made a cell phone call.

The 29-year-old officer was standing outside his car on Highway 65, directing traffic from the northbound lanes to a Roseville exit when he was struck about 4 a.m. Dungan's attorney said the murder charge should be dismissed because his client acted without malice. But prosecutor Daniel Gong told the jury the murder charge should stick. He said Dungan's blood-alcohol level when he struck Redding was more than twice legal limit and that Dungan had been stopped at least twice before on suspicion of drunken driving.

Among the nearly 40 prosecution witnesses was a cabdriver who said he warned Dungan three times on another night a few days before the accident not to drive home because he seemed drunk.