Boyfriend of Comatose Woman Acquitted in Battery Trial

A Sherman Oaks man, whose comatose girlfriend was taken before the jury in a wheelchair during his trial for battery, was acquitted by a San Fernando jury Friday.

After deliberating for about three hours, the jury found Alan Jay Mitnick, 43, innocent on one count of battery with serious bodily injury.

Mitnick smiled and shook hands with his attorney before walking out to thank the jurors individually.

Mitnick’s girlfriend, Donna Pellegrino of Sherman Oaks, became comatose on Sept. 23, 1984, after she and Mitnick argued and fought at the North Hollywood home of an acquaintance, according to testimony. The prosecution alleged that blows to Pellegrino’s head during the fight caused the blood clots that brought on the coma.

During the trial, Pellegrino was briefly taken before the jury in a wheelchair, but jurors said her presence did not help the prosecution’s case.

“It didn’t affect me at all,” juror Norman Barr of Canyon Country said. Barr added that the jury was told at the beginning of the trial about Pellegrino’s condition so that her presence in the courtroom was “a little bit theatrical.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Harold Lynn said that it was necessary to show Pellegrino to the jury in order to prove the special allegation that she suffered great bodily injury. Proof of the special allegation would have added three years to the maximum four-year sentence for battery.

But the jury believed that the prosecution failed to prove two of the three elements necessary for a battery conviction, according to juror Phillip Hann of Granada Hills.

Jurors agreed that, although evidence showed that Mitnick physically fought with Pellegrino, the force he used was not willful and unlawful, Hann said. “We believed that, if anything, it was self-defense.”

Hann also said that the prosecution failed to prove that Mitnick caused Pellegrino’s injury. “We believe that her problem occurred before the fight.”

During the trial, defense attorney Peter Brown contended that any number of things could have caused Pellegrino’s injury and that the prosecutor, by arguing that Mitnick caused the victim’s condition, was asking jurors to make “an incredible quantum leap” in logic.

Brown suggested instead that Pellegrino’s abuse of alcohol and cocaine may have caused her condition. One of Pellegrino’s former neighbors testified that Pellegrino suffered severe headaches and once passed out while she was intoxicated.

Laboratory reports entered into evidence showed that, five hours after paramedics were called, Pellegrino had a blood alcohol level of .33. A person with a .10 blood alcohol level is presumed legally intoxicated in California.

The key testimony was that of neurologist Michel Philippart, a defense witness, according to juror Elgin Duffin. Philippart testified that, based on the amount of hemorrhaging in Pellegrino’s brain, the blood clot would have taken several days to form and could not have been caused on the day of the fight.

Lack of evidence of bruises or cuts on the victim was also an important factor in the jury’s conclusion that the fight between Mitnick and Pellegrino did not cause the victim’s injuries, said another juror, Chief Resendez of Granada Hills.