A would-be lawyer is now facing a lifetime in the slammer after a California jury hammered down a second-degree murder conviction for a third-year law student whose drunken joyride ended in tragedy. The now-convicted murderer, Richard Lindwall III, 34, was found guilty of killing Carlos Mendez, 41, in a brutal DUI crash back in August 2017.

As reported by the Orange County District Attorney's Office, the Yorba Linda native's blood alcohol content registered nearly four times the legal limit during the deadly head-on collision. Court details reveal Lindwall's dark past with an aggravated assault conviction from a 2011 incident that seemed not to deter his dangerous driving habits.

Lindwall's previous run-in with the law in Arizona, where he served time for injuring his girlfriend in another alcohol-fueled crash, was detailed in his law school application to Pepperdine University School of Law. Despite this, he was accepted and was completing his final year of studies at the time he rammed into Mendez's vehicle at over 90 miles per hour, sending it reeling from its axle.

After the tragic incident, responders at the scene discovered shattered beer bottles scattered in Lindwall's car, and tests also found prescription drugs swimming in his bloodstream, the District Attorney's Office disclosed. "A law student who used his prior drinking and driving as part of his application to get accepted into law school is now a convicted murder," said District Attorney Todd Spitzer. Lindwall now faces a grim future with sentencing slated for June, where 30 years to life, plus an additional five years, wait in state prison.

Deputy District Attorney Devin Campbell, from the Homicide Unit, led the prosecution against Lindwall, sealing his fate away from the law career he once sought. Instead of preparing to uphold the law, he will now be subject to it, serving time for the irreparable harm his actions caused on that fateful night.