Denny Jurors Reach Verdicts on Some Counts : Trial: Panel deadlocks on other charges, including attempted murder. Judge gives them today off and asks them to consider continuing their deliberations.

By EDWARD J. BOYER

Oct. 17, 1993 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Jurors in the Reginald O. Denny beating trial revealed Saturday that they had reached some verdicts in the volatile case but were hopelessly deadlocked on a number of others, including one of the most controversial charges--the premeditated attempted murder of Denny.

In a late afternoon session, the jury forewoman told Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk that she did not feel additional deliberations or instructions would help jurors agree on the remaining counts. Under questioning from the judge, only one juror said she believed further deliberations would help.

“Think about it tomorrow as to whether further instructions on the law or deliberations will be productive,” Ouderkirk instructed the panel. “When you return on Monday, I will take the verdicts on the counts you have decided. I will ask you if further deliberations will be productive. Think about it.”

The judge said that on Monday he will accept the verdicts that have been reached and decide whether to declare a mistrial on the others. A mistrial would leave prosecutors with the delicate decision of whether to retry Damian Monroe Williams and co-defendant Henry Keith Watson.

Acceptance of the verdicts by the judge does not mean that he will immediately announce them. Ouderkirk has said announcement of the verdicts would be delayed until one day after they were received. That delay would give law enforcement agencies time to gird for any violence that might erupt as a result of the jury’s decision in the racially charged trial.

In all, the jury said it had reached agreement on five counts against Williams and four against Watson stemming from attacks on Denny and seven others at Florence and Normandie avenues in the opening moments of last year’s riots. The violence, captured on live television, came to symbolize the rage and power of the unrest that erupted after four Los Angeles police officers were found not guilty in a state trial in the beating of Rodney G. King.

Among the verdicts the Denny jury said it could not agree upon was the alleged premeditated attempted murder of Denny by Williams. The serious nature of the charge, which carries a potential life sentence, had prompted allegations from many African-Americans that prosecutors had piled on charges because the defendants are black and Denny is white.

Watson is charged with being an accomplice to the attempted murder.

If the jury remains deadlocked or acquits Williams on the premeditated attempted murder charge, Williams’ attorney, Edi M. O. Faal, will have won a big gamble.

In considering jury instructions, Faal chose not to give the jury the option of considering a lesser offense on that charge, leaving the panel no middle ground.

“Either there is attempted murder or there is not,” he said in his closing argument. “The stakes are high.”

Legal experts were not surprised that the jury deadlocked on attempted murder.

“Most people thought that was the most difficult to prove,” said Loyola University law professor Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor. “It requires the showing of cruel and deliberate intent. But you can’t assume that the verdicts they agreed on are convictions. It does not mean the prosecution succeeded on the other counts.”

Southwestern University law professor Robert Pugsley said the deadlocked counts “bespeaks a conscientious jury that has been going through each count carefully rather than just going down the numbers.”

The jury said it also was deadlocked on three charges of assault with a deadly weapon against victims other than Denny and two counts of robbery, all of which were filed against Williams. The jury said it had reached an impasse on a single assault charge against Watson.

The jury said it did reach a verdict on another of the case’s most hotly debated counts--the charge of aggravated mayhem brought against Williams in the beating of Denny, who was pulled from his gravel truck and beaten unconscious. Prosecutors allege that by hitting the trucker in the head with a brick, Williams intentionally caused permanent disability or disfigurement. This charge--like premeditated attempted murder--carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Although the panel reached a verdict on this count, it deadlocked on the “special allegation” of whether a deadly weapon was used--an enhancement that would add a year in prison upon conviction.

“The fact that they are deadlocked on the special allegation,” Faal speculated, “appears to indicate that they may have found simple--rather than aggravated--mayhem.”

Simple mayhem carries a maximum penalty of eight years in prison. That charge involves disfiguring or disabling a person without specifically intending to do so.

He said that the deadlock announced Saturday “indicated that 12 jurors have not come to an agreement on whether Damian Williams committed (premeditated) attempted murder or aggravated mayhem.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Janet Moore refused to speculate on the verdicts or whether prosecutors would retry the defendants should a mistrial be declared. She emphasized that the jury as presently constituted has deliberated only 2 1/2 days.

“Once they rest and come back on Monday, I hope they will be ready to go back to work,” she said. “On Monday, we will urge that they should go back and give it another try.”

Moore’s co-prosecutor Lawrence C. Morrison said all of the verdicts are important. “They represent people who were victimized at Florence and Normandie. We wish to have resolutions on all of the counts.”

Attorney Karen Ackerson, who represents Watson, said she believes her client has been found not guilty of attempting to murder Denny. Watson was charged on the prosecution theory that he aided and abetted those who allegedly attempted to kill the trucker.

“We believe that if they deadlocked on attempted murder on Mr. Williams, then they found Mr. Watson not guilty,” Ackerson said.

It would be reasonable to assume, she said, that if they could not agree on the alleged principal perpetrator, Williams, then the alleged aider and abettor, Watson, was acquitted.

UCLA law professor Peter Arenella, an expert in constitutional law and criminal procedure, agreed.

“It might well mean acquittal as to the verdict for attempted murder for Mr. Watson,” he said. “It would be hard to believe they convicted the accomplice, but are hung when it comes to the principal, Mr. Williams.”

The jury also deadlocked on whether Watson was guilty of assault with a deadly weapon on trucker Larry Tarvin, even though Watson’s attorney, Earl C. Broady Jr., conceded in his closing argument that videotape showed Watson was involved in the assault.

Shortly after the panel began its deliberations, it sent a note to Ouderkirk asking if closing arguments are evidence, specifically referring to Broady’s statement that Watson “was definitely in the video” of assaults at Florence and Normandie.

Ouderkirk, defense attorneys and prosecutors agreed to answer by saying that “statements made by the attorneys in argument are not evidence. But argument of all counsel may be considered for the purpose of guiding you in evaluating evidence.”

Saturday’s court session followed days of contentiousness in the jury room that heightened tensions surrounding the case and generated national headlines.

After complaints by other jurors, Ouderkirk removed one panelist Monday for “failing to deliberate as defined by law,” a move strenuously opposed by defense lawyers. An alternate was named to replace her, and jurors began their deliberations over again.

On Tuesday, Ouderkirk excused the panel’s lone white male member for personal hardship unrelated to deliberations. Another alternate was named to the panel, and deliberations started from scratch yet again.

The jury of 10 women and two men now is composed of four African-Americans, four Latinos, two Anglos and two Asian-Americans.

Arenella said he doubts that most of the troubles that the jury encountered last week will be of significance if defense attorneys appeal any guilty verdicts.

The one exception could be Ouderkirk’s dismissal of an African-American woman from the panel last Monday. “If the judge abused his discretion, he violated the defendants’ right to the jury they had,” Arenella said.

Times staff writers Ted Johnson and Bob Pool contributed to this story.

Where the Jury Deadlocked

The jury in the Reginald O. Denny beating trial said it has been unable to reach verdicts on the following charges:

THE DEFENDANT: Damian Monroe Williams

* Victim: Alicia Maldonado

Charge: Assault with a deadly weapon

* Victim: Reginald Denny

Charge: Attempted premeditated murder

* Victim: Reginald Denny

Charge: Special allegation, use of a deadly weapon, in charge of aggravated mayhem

* Victim: Takao Hirata

Charge: Robbery