1 Convicted, 2 Freed in Dunphy Shooting

One man was convicted and two others were acquitted by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury Thursday in the 1983 shooting of television newscaster Jerry Dunphy and a companion.

Dunphy and Sandra Marshall, a makeup artist whom Dunphy has since married, were shot by assailants who fired from a car at Dunphy’s Rolls-Royce at a stop sign outside KABC-TV’s studio in Hollywood.

Frederick Cole, 24, was found guilty of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. The jury, which deliberated two days after hearing testimony for three weeks, found Gregory Chatman, 19, and Joseph Mark Lee, 22, not guilty of attempted robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery.

Chatman, the only defendant to testify in his own defense, consistently denied any involvement in the October, 1983, incident, which occurred as Dunphy and Marshall were returning to the studio for an 11 p.m. newscast.

After the verdict, Lee told reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom that he and Chatman were in the car with Cole. At the urging of his mother and sister, however, Lee quickly changed his mind and said he did not fully recall what took place the night of the shooting.

Jury foreman Paul Doemeny, 42, of Long Beach said jury members decided that Chatman was not in the car.

Doemeny, a chemist for the U.S. Customs Service, said he believes that Raymond Dee Johnson--a fourth suspect who was granted immunity from prosecution and who testified against Chatman at the trial--actually shot Dunphy.

Lee, Doemeny said, was driving the car but did not shoot and could not be held responsible for any of his actions because of his medical condition. During the trial, testimony was presented that Lee suffers from schizophrenia.

According to a Channel 7 spokesman, Dunphy was “outraged” by the verdict and said that it “made no sense to convict one and free two when, according to a witness, they were all in it together.”

Dunphy, 63, who was shot in the arm and neck, has returned to work but has limited use of his left arm, making such tasks as typing difficult, he testified. Marshall, 36, was hit in the right arm and suffered a fractured jaw and punctured eardrum when Dunphy’s car careened out of control after the shots were fired.

According to allegations by the prosecution, supported by Johnson’s testimony, the shooting occurred at the end of an evening-long robbery spree in which the defendants accosted victims at bus stops and automatic bank teller machines from Gardena to Hollywood.

During the trial, Dunphy testified that the shooting, at Prospect Avenue and Talmadge Street, was preceded by a threat from someone in a nearby car who shouted, “Don’t move, you dirty sons of bitches.” Dunphy said he turned to Marshall and said, “My God, I think they’re serious.”

As he turned back toward the men, Dunphy told the jury, he saw “a flash of fire” and was hit in the neck. Neither Dunphy nor Marshall was able to identify any of the assailants.

Cole’s attorney, James Bledsoe, said he was not surprised by the verdict against his client because Cole had admitted complicity in the shooting in a statement to authorities.

Bledsoe, who said Cole could face 12 1/2 years in prison when sentenced July 9 by Superior Court Judge Ernest M. Hiroshige, added that he was shocked that the jury decided to acquit Chatman.

Cole, in his statement, also implicated Chatman in the shooting, Bledsoe indicated. Because of legal technicalities, however, the jury was not allowed to hear that evidence. Rather, prosecutors placed Chatman at the scene through testimony of Johnson and Troy Moreland, a 16-year-old witness whose testimony was not reliable, according to Doemeny.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dennis Choate, apparently upset by the verdict, left the courtroom quickly and did not return phone calls.

Before leaving, he said: “We put all the evidence in we could get in and the Police Department did their job and it’s just one of those things that occurs. . . .”