One Believed Alibi : Hung Jury Ends Trial for Murder

A hung jury was declared Monday in the murder trial of a Fullerton man whose wife testified that he was away from home when she killed a 13-month-old boy left in their care.

Only one of the jurors believed the wife, and the jury voted 11 to 1 in favor of a second-degree murder conviction for Michael Garritson, 34. Garritson was arrested last August after his wife, Linda, told police he was responsible for killing the baby, Scotty Cleveland, in their Anaheim home in 1979.

Linda Garritson, who is to be tried for murder next month, recanted her statements to police at her husband’s trial two weeks ago. She testified that she killed the boy by accident, by dropping him on the family room steps, while her husband was out jogging.

The jurors told Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald on Friday, after three days of deliberation, that they were hopelessly deadlocked, 11 to 1. On the judge’s orders, they did not say which way they were split.

Returned on Monday

Fitzgerald asked the jurors to come back Monday morning and try again, but after an hour on Monday, they concluded it was hopeless. The judge declared a mistrial after learning how they were split. Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Avdeef is expected to try Michael Garritson again.

Michael Garritson’s attorney, Mason Fenton, said he was shocked by the jurors’ vote.

“I felt good all weekend; I thought the 11 were for innocent,” Fenton said.

Michael Garritson, who is free on $50,000 bail, was seething.

“I have nothing to say, except it’s a screwed-up system,” he said. “I’m innocent as hell.”

Garritson and his wife, who is seven months pregnant with their fourth child, still live together, but he was clearly angry with her on Monday.

“She ought to feel guilty as hell about what she’s done to me,” he said.

Linda Garritson testified she lied to police partly because she was trying to cover up her own involvement. Her attorney, Charles Margines, said she had learned that her husband was seeing another woman and she wanted to teach him a lesson.

“She thought she could go back to the police, after he’d sat a few days in jail, and straighten it all out,” Margines said.

One Holdout on Jury

Linda Garritson, who is free on her own recognizance, held a hand to her face when she heard how the jurors had voted. Later, she called it “outrageous and appalling.”

The only juror who believed Linda Garritson’s testimony was Sylvia Ensminger, of Laguna Beach. Ensminger said the other jurors believed the wife lied to cover up for her husband because she wanted to save their marriage.

Ensminger said there was tremendous pressure on her to vote with the other 11 jurors.

“I don’t feel bad about what I did,” Ensminger said. “I don’t think he did it, so I couldn’t vote to convict him.”

The jury’s options were to convict Michael Garritson guilty of second-degree murder or find him not guilty; no lesser charges were considered.

Prosecutor Avdeef told the jury Linda Garritson was lying because the two had a plan they hoped would free both of them: She would exonerate him at his trial, and he would come back at her trial to help her.

Conflicting Informants

Avdeef brought in a jailhouse informant, Albert Ramirez, who testified Garritson told him he had thrown the child down the steps in a fit of anger. The defense brought on its own jailhouse informant, Steven Van Vickle, who said Ramirez had admitted that he made up his testimony. Avdeef countered with another jailhouse informant, Gary Patterson, who said Garritson told him he had paid for Van Vickle’s testimony and had offered to buy Patterson’s.

The jury foreman, Thomas Harris of Huntington Beach, said none of the jurors believed any of the three informants. Ensminger said that was true, with one exception: Some of the jurors believed Garritson probably had paid Van Vickle for his testimony, she said.