Father Faces New Trial in Baby’s Death

Ronald Albert Willis, an unemployed Long Beach security guard charged in the alleged beating death of his 1 1/2-year-old daughter, faces retrial after a Norwalk Superior Court jury deadlocked 9 to 3 Friday in favor of a second-degree murder conviction.

On Thursday, after a week of deliberation, the jury had found Willis not guilty of first-degree murder, but reported it was deadlocked 8 to 4 on a charge of second-degree murder. Judge Ronald E. Cappai told the panel to continue deliberations, but on Friday Foreman Howard Kenyon said the jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

“I felt that involuntary manslaughter would have been a good verdict,” Kenyon said after Cappai declared a mistrial. “I had reasonable doubt about his intent to kill the child.”

Willis testified that he hit 19-month-old Mary Lynn several times in September, 1983, but he did not realize how badly hurt she was. When she died on Sept. 16, he said, he panicked, wrapped her body in a plastic bag and put it in a trash dumpster. He then told Long Beach police that she had been kidnaped, and he went on television pleading for her return.

But after a night of intense questioning, Willis allegedly gave police contradictory answers and was booked on suspicion of murder. The child’s body was later found in a Puente Hills landfill.

Willis will be back in court on Feb. 6, when a new trial date will be set.