Por NEAL PUTNAM Uptown News<\/p>\n
A second jury deadlocked Jan. 27 for a man accused of killing a 71-year-old man in North Park, and the judge dismissed the case, setting him free.<\/p>\n
Edward Jamar Brooks, 39, was released from jail about six hours later on Jan. 27 after the six-man, six-woman jury deadlocked 9-3 in favor of acquittal following 16 hours of deliberations over four days.<\/p>\n
This was a retrial for Brooks, whose first jury deadlocked 9-3 for conviction on Oct. 31, 2019, in the death of LeRay \u201cMac\u201d Parkins, 71.<\/p>\n
Deputy District Attorney Christina Arrollado told San Diego Superior Court Judge David Gill she was not ready to dismiss the case against Brooks, and that a third trial was possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see any justification for trying it a third time,\u201d responded Gill. \u201cI don\u2019t know if you will ever get 12 people to agree.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI will exercise my own discretion and dismiss the charges,\u201d said Gill, ordering Brooks\u2019 release.<\/p>\n
Brooks was not present because he had the flu so severely he could not attend the hearing as jurors explained they were hopelessly deadlocked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was the fairest of trials,\u201d said attorney Robert Ford, who represented Brooks.<\/p>\n
Brooks, who was 20 years old when Parkins was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat on Aug. 23, 2000, in an alley, testified that a Spring Valley man he was with that day killed Parkins.<\/p>\n
Brooks testified he was selling crack cocaine when Lester Bell, now 39, and Terrence Brown, now 38, picked him up and drove him to North Park.<\/p>\n
Parkins lived in North Park with his partner of 20 years and was out on his morning walk in an alley off Pershing Avenue. He was a tenor in the choir of Metropolitan Community Church, which then was located on 30th Street in North Park.<\/p>\n
MCC Pastor Dan Koeshall said last week he was disappointed the jury couldn\u2019t reach a verdict.<\/p>\n
In 2018, police tested the empty pockets of Parkins\u2019 pants, and Brooks\u2019 DNA was matched. He admitted to stealing the wallet from Parkins in his testimony to jurors.<\/p>\n
A robbery charge was not filed against Brooks because the statute of limitations barred it. There is no statute of limitations for murder.<\/p>\n
Afterward, frustrated jurors spoke to both attorneys about why they couldn\u2019t reach a verdict. Several pointed out that Brooks\u2019 DNA on a pocket of Parkins\u2019 pants didn\u2019t prove he killed him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pocket led us to the event, but there was no solid proof [of murder by Brooks],\u201d said one juror.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt only put him there,\u201d said another juror.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kept going back and forth,\u201d said another.<\/p>\n
Jurors said they did not hear testimony from Bell or Brown in the retrial as the prosecutor decided not to present them as witnesses. The first jury heard Bell and Brown, who said Brooks killed Parkins, but they said they wanted more confirmation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t have their perspective on what happened that day,\u201d said a juror.<\/p>\n
Jurors said their first vote was 9-3 for conviction, so they asked to re-hear Brooks\u2019 testimony that was read back by a court reporter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere definitely were inconsistencies in the 2018 [police] interview and what he said on the stand,\u201d said another juror.<\/p>\n
Some jurors said Brooks\u2019 own testimony didn\u2019t help. One juror said, \u201che made it worse.\u201d But others said he helped.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was telling us what he wanted us to hear,\u201d said a juror.<\/p>\n
Ford told jurors the robbery was Brooks\u2019 first and last hold-up he had ever done, but in the police interview, Brooks was asked about why Parkins\u2019 pockets were left inside out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s protocol: when you rough up someone, you go through their pockets,\u201d said Brooks in the interview that jurors watched.<\/p>\n
Before attorneys left the courtroom, Gill commented, \u201cIt was well tried. You gave it your best shot, Ms. Arrollado.\u201d<\/p>\n
As she was walking down the hallway afterwards, Arrollado said, \u201cI\u2019m very disappointed\u201d in the outcome.<\/p>\n
Bell pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and Brown pleaded guilty to robbery. A murder charge was dismissed and both will be sentenced on Feb. 21.<\/p>\n
Bell and Brown were linked to the theft of a credit card taken from Parkins\u2019 wallet as Bell called his ex-girlfriend where she worked at a clothing store. She let the credit card go through her line and it was signed by Brown.<\/p>\n
Bell\u2019s ex-girlfriend testified at both trials. Both Bell and Brown remain in jail.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Neal Putnam es un reportero judicial local.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By NEAL PUTNAM \u00a0Uptown News A second jury deadlocked Jan. 27 for a man accused of killing a 71-year-old man in North Park, and the judge dismissed the case, setting him free.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1266,"featured_media":250920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Man freed after second murder mistrial","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1266"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}