Santa Ana : Jury Acquits Oklahoma Man of Murder Charge

An Oklahoma man facing first-degree murder charges for a Santa Ana stabbing was acquitted Tuesday by an Orange County Superior Court jury after eight days of deliberation.

Jurors said later that they believed the story of Keith Eugene Penn, 23, who testified that he stabbed a Santa Ana man in self-defense in the parking lot of a restaurant.

Penn had been charged with the Jan. 13 murder of Thomas Alleno, 20. Penn, a Tulsa resident, was visiting friends in Orange County at the time.

At a preliminary hearing six months ago, a Municipal Court judge ruled that there was no evidence to support a first-degree murder verdict against Penn. But the district attorney’s office appealed to Superior Court and the first-degree charge was reinstated.

The jury’s deliberations were considered lengthy, even for a murder trial. One juror fell ill the first day, and Superior Court Judge William W. Thomson ordered the panel to begin again after an alternate stepped in. Jurors deliberated for six days, broke for Thanksgiving and then met for two more days.

After the acquittal was announced, Penn’s attorney, Clarence E. Haynes, said his client told him: “I prayed to God for this. I just thank Jesus.”

The stabbing was triggered by a racial incident inside the Black Angus Restaurant at 1350 N. Tustin Ave., according to court records.

Penn, who is black, his brother, Emerson, and a third black man were in the company of a white woman when a white man and four Latinos approached them, police said. One of the Latinos reportedly made a critical comment about the brothers and their companions, according to court documents.

A confrontation that carried over into the parking lot ensued, police said. Emerson Penn testified that he saw at least three men head toward his brother, one of them yelling that they should kill him. However, a security guard testified for the prosecution that he saw only the murder victim near Keith Penn, and that Penn was standing over Alleno, making stabbing motions at him.

Keith Penn testified that Alleno and at least two others jumped him and that he pulled out a 2 1/2-inch knife to defend himself. Alleno was stabbed twice.

None of the witnesses could say definitely whether Alleno was one of the Latinos who approached Penn and the others inside the restaurant.

Penn, who has been held in Orange County Jail since the incident on $250,000 bail, was scheduled to be released Tuesday night.