Murder-for-Insurance Trial Ends in Stalemate

A mistrial was declared Wednesday in the case of a Huntington Beach woman accused of participating with her boyfriend in the shooting death of her husband after one juror steadfastly voted to acquit her.

Jeanette Hughes, 30, who was arrested two days after the Jan. 10, 1984, slaying of James Hughes, 37, will return to Orange County Superior Court Friday for a new trial date. Her boyfriend, Adam Ramirez Sr., 43, has already been convicted of first-degree murder in a separate trial and sentenced to 28 years to life in prison.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Rick Toohey, upset about the hung jury, said he would prosecute Hughes “as many times as it takes for justice to be done.”

Kill for Insurance

Hughes admitted to police that she participated in a plan by Ramirez to kill her husband for his life insurance, worth $440,000.

She also admitted she was in another room when the shooting took place. She had told the police dispatcher when she first reported the shooting that she was in bed next to her sleeping husband when a burglar broke in, struck her and shot her husband.

Her attorney, Donald Rubright, argued successfully in two different courts that the admissions could not be used in her trial because Huntington Beach police had not properly advised her of her rights.

Rubright’s defense at her trial was to depict her as a nonviolent person through testimony from family members and to try to convince jurors that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Toohey said jurors told him that 11 of them were ready to return a verdict of first-degree murder an hour after their deliberations began. But the one holdout juror, a retired man, told Toohey that he felt the case had not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Toohey said he would attempt at the next trial to get Hughes’ statements to police introduced again.

‘Pictured as a Butterfly’

“Jeanette Hughes was pictured (by the defense) at her trial as a butterfly, when in fact her role in this has been as the spider,” Toohey said.

Rubright said his client asked him after the hung jury, “When is this all going to end?” Despite the lopsided vote for a first-degree murder verdict, Rubright was not dismayed.

“Our goal is to avoid a guilty verdict, and we’ve done that so far,” Rubright said.

Police were able to arrest Ramirez quickly after the shooting because of a snag in his plans. According to his son, Adam Jr., 22, who testified against both his father and Jeanette Hughes, the elder Ramirez intended to leave the scene in the Hughes’ car to give credence to the burglary theory. Then he was supposed to switch to his own car, parked nearby.

But shortly before the shooting, the son testified, his father asked him to switch jackets because he wanted to wear the son’s darker jacket. Later, Ramirez Sr. realized that he had left his keys in the other jacket, so he had to remain in the Hughes’ car instead of switching to his own.

The prosecution contends that Jeanette Hughes called the police and reported the burglary, thinking her boyfriend had already had time to switch cars. Ramirez Sr. was picked up minutes after Jeanette Hughes told the police dispatcher her family car was missing.