Results tagged “deliberations”

Back in 2007, police arrested a man accused of brutally beating and mugging a 101-year-old woman and then an 85-year-old woman, but a 2008 trial ended in mistrial because the jury forewoman had some work/travel issues. Now, a second trial jury is deliberating the case again, after hearing from the prosecutors, who say Jack Rhodes was identified by witnesses, and Rhodes' lawyer who claims his client is being set up. Centenarian victim Rose Morat had taped her testimony early last year in case she couldn't make it to trial, but she's now 103!

At first, the trial over Brooke Astor's estate was an exciting glimpse into society; months later, it's just boring. The NY Times reports that jury deliberations are forcing the defendants (including Astor's son Anthony Marshall) and lawyers to kill time: "Mr. Marshall, 85, has been alternating between reading French literature by the likes of Honoré de Balzac and dozing off on the bench. At one point last week, Mr. Marshall lay asleep on a wooden bench in the hallway outside the courtroom with a newspaper over his face." And a defense lawyer said, "Thank God for Wi-Fi."

Just a little over three weeks after the Imette St. Guillen trial began, it is now in the hands of jurors who will decide the fate of Darryl Littlejohn for sexually assaulting and murdering the graduate student from Boston. In closing arguments yesterday, Littlejohn's defense lawyer Joyce David accused police of a conspiracy to protect his boss, bar manager Danny Dorrian, whose brother-in-law was an adviser to Rudy Giuliani. David said, "Darryl Littlejohn was the solution to all their problems: solving the city's biggest crime at the time, protecting Danny Dorrian and protecting Rudy Giuliani from another scandal while he was running for President." David said St. Guillen and Dorrian could have had "a weird bondage thing." Prosecutor Kenneth Taub responded to the vague allegations by calling them "the rankest kind of speculation" and said there is "a mountain of evidence" against Littlejohn. Update: After six hours of deliberation, the jury has found Littlejohn guilty of rape and first-degree murder.

The jury deciding the fate of Joseph Petcka, on trial for animal cruelty after he killed his girlfriend's declawed cat, is still at work after three days of deliberations and claims it was deadlocked. According to the Post, one juror told the judge he was "being 'coerced' by the other jurors," but after the meeting, " the jurors requested an easel, a "flip chart," colored markers and a roll of tape, ready to dig in again." They also want some testimony read back. Petcka, 205 pounds, claims the 7-pound cat provoked him, so he kicked the cat so seriously it had multiple broken bones, a lacerated tongue, and a chest full of blood. Petcka's lawyer was surprised at the long deliberation, saying, "The only time I've had jurors out this long is in murder cases." Perhaps he forgot his client killed a cat.

The jury deciding the fate of Cesar Rodriguez, accused of brutally killing his stepdaughter, had completed its third day of deliberations without a verdict yesterday, but this morning they have announced they have a decision. The AP reports they have found Rodriguez guilty of first-degree manslaughter; he will face up to 28 years in prison.