Drifter Found Guilty of Threatening Actress

The Scottish drifter who stabbed Theresa Saldana nearly to death was convicted Wednesday of mailing death threats on the actress while serving time for the 1982 attack.

Arthur Richard Jackson, 55, was found guilty in Los Angeles Superior Court on five counts of threatening a witness. He is the first person to be convicted under a 2-year-old state law that Saldana supported prohibiting felons from threatening witnesses or victims in their cases.

He faces 11 more years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 8, and perhaps more if he is judged mentally unstable, prosecutors said. Saldana sighed with relief when the verdict was announced and hugged friends as Jackson was led back to his holding cell in handcuffs.

“My initial reaction to this verdict is, ‘Yaaaaaayyy,’ ” she shrieked at a courthouse news conference. “I’m very, very happy.”

Jackson, diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, stabbed Saldana three times in the chest and in the arms and legs March 15, 1982. He was convicted later that year of attempted murder.

Before the attack, he stalked Saldana under the belief that he was on a divine mission, according to psychiatric testimony at his first trial.

While in prison, Jackson began mailing letters threatening Saldana to television talk-show host Geraldo Rivera.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner called Jackson a “homicidal maniac” who is bent on killing Saldana.

“He tried to kill her, did his time and was readying to try again,” Reiner said at the news conference. “A man with that mental state should never see the light of day.”

Saldana praised Reiner for standing by her during the years she spent trying to bring national attention to Jackson’s threats. Her work, Reiner said, produced the law under which Jackson was convicted Wednesday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Gruber, who prosecuted the case, said the statute will be a powerful weapon in the war on gangs.

“This law is designed to prevent terror,” said Gruber. “It will flood over into the gang crimes because they often threaten victims from prison too.”

Deputy Public Defender Norman Kava said he will appeal the conviction.

Jackson also faces a murder charge in England that stems from a London bank robbery in the 1960s. He has confessed to the slaying, but prosecutors are unsure whether he will be deported to stand trial.

Saldana, who appeared in the film “Raging Bull,” said she is afraid that Jackson will hunt her down again if he is returned to England.