After five days of deliberation, a jury reported Monday, July 30, it was hopelessly deadlocked on a potential death penalty verdict for the man who killed an Ocean Beach liquor store clerk and a University City mortgage broker in 2004.
A mistrial was declared as a result.
Jurors said they were hung 8-4 in favor of the death penalty against Tecumseh Colbert, 23, according to San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Wellington.
The same jury convicted Colbert on June 28 of two first-degree murder counts and the special circumstances of murder during a robbery.
The eight-man, four-woman jury began deliberations in the penalty phase July 19.
“We all pretty much agreed we’ve heard everything,” the jury foreman told Wellington, who asked if further instructions or testimony readback could enable them to reach a verdict.
Colbert, of the North Bay Terraces area, could only be retried on the penalty phase because the murder convictions will stand. A status date was set for Oct. 5 to see if he will, in fact, face another penalty phase trial anytime soon.
Colbert was the gunman who shot to death Richard Hammes, 45, on Nov. 10, 2004, at the Prime Market Liquor, at 4161 Voltaire St. Colbert, wearing an “old man” Halloween mask, demanded that Hammes give him money, but the victim instead approached him and was fatally shot. A security camera taped the incident.
The broker, Robert McCamey, 32, of University City, was shot to death Oct. 29, 2004, after being lured to Colbert by Colbert’s ex-girlfriend, who later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
Colbert’s lawyer, Brad Patton, argued that Colbert’s father was a wife beater and drug abuser, and his mother distanced herself from her son. Colbert ran away from home at age 10 and became caught up with gangs and drugs in his early teens.
Patton claimed Colbert suffered from brain damage and that he attempted suicide at age 15 while in custody at the California Youth Authority.
Colbert testified July 12 that “I was like a wild human” after he was released from the CYA. He said fighting was “like breathing. I became real violent.”
At age 19, Colbert was sent to Folsom Prison on a weapons charge. He described prison life for jurors.
A co-defendant, Theron Lee Peters, 40, of Point Loma, was sentenced June 22 to two consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Peters was present for the murders but was not the trigger-man.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder with the special circumstances to avoid trial.
Colbert and Peters robbed a third man during a carjacking after they answered his ad for a Cadillac for sale. According to testimony, they discussed killing the man but decided to release him and let him live. The Cadillac they took had a tracking device in it, and police arrested Colbert and Peters after locating the car.