Jury Deadlocks; Mistrial Called in ‘Mini-Manson’ Murder Case

A mistrial was declared Monday in the murder case of Oleg Pinsky after jurors could not break a deadlock over whether he should be held responsible in the 1984 shotgun slaying of a male prostitute in the desert outside Los Angeles.

Pinsky, 20, had testified during his month-long trial that he was “tripping” on marijuana and that he did not take part in the shooting when two other members of his street “family” killed Carlos Pena, whom they had picked up near a bus stop in Hollywood.

The jury did, however, convict Pinsky of two unrelated counts of armed robbery at the Royal Viking Motel in Hollywood, where a fellow “family” member, Sonny Godfrey, worked as a clerk. Pinsky could face about eight years in state prison on the robbery counts, defense counsel William Ringgold said.

Godfrey, 42, the suspected head of the so-called “mini-Manson family,” and Robert Harris Ormsbee, 20, another family member, have yet to be tried in Pena’s killing. Godfrey and Ormsbee are also charged with the murders of two other homosexual male prostitutes in what authorities assert may have been part of a plan by the group to purge Santa Monica Boulevard of male prostitutes.

The Pinsky jury, which began its deliberations Dec. 31, took three ballots on the murder count during almost four days of deliberations, voting 7-5 in favor of not guilty on the final ballot.

On the first ballot, four jurors were undecided and five voted not guilty, sources said.

“Although there was some progress (during the deliberations),” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders said, “it was not substantial.”

Ringgold said that he felt “relieved” by the jury’s wide split and that he hopes it will persuade the prosecution not to seek a retrial. A hearing has been set for today, and Deputy Dist. Atty. Rita Stapleton will be asked then about her intention in the matter.

“I think it showed there was a reasonable doubt whether Pinsky wanted to go along with this thing,” Ringgold said.

Trial testimony showed that on the night of Pena’s slaying, the three were cruising along Santa Monica Boulevard in Godfrey’s truck when they spotted Pena near a bus stop and lured him in on the pretext of soliciting sex. Pinksy testified that after Pena was handcuffed in the back of the truck, he cut off Pena’s T-shirt because he was afraid not to follow his fellow “family” members’ demands.

In seeking to hold Pinsky responsible for the murder, the prosecution sought to establish that he had intended to help rob Pena. Under state law, those partaking in a robbery can be held liable for a death that results, whether they do the actual killing or not.

According to one juror who voted for acquittal, the robbery charges were “unproven” by the prosecutors. Bill Steigerwald, a newspaper copy editor, said Pinsky “was such a puppy dog, such a follower . . . he was obviously not making any decisions.”

Pinsky, whose family settled in Glendale after immigrating to the United States from Russia, was the first “mini-Manson family” member to undergo a full trial. A fourth member, Thomas Canup, 24, pleaded guilty last May to second-degree murder in another killing.