Partial Verdict Finds Man Guilty of Assault on San Diego Officer

In a partial verdict announced Tuesday in a controversial police murder case, Sagon Penn was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon for driving a patrol car over San Diego Police Officer Donovan Jacobs.

Although the jury had reached a verdict on only one of six criminal charges against Penn, the decision was announced in Superior Court after a juror was taken to a hospital to give birth. Deliberations were suspended until next Tuesday when juror Vernell Hardy is expected to return.

“I think it’s great,” said Jacobs, who was shot in the neck by Penn before being run over by the police vehicle. “Convict him on all of ‘em!”

Penn faces a prison term of five to seven years for the conviction, which was for a lesser crime than had been requested by the prosecution.

Lesser Charge Sanctioned

Prosecutors had asked the jury to find Penn guilty of attempted murder for running over Jacobs, but Judge Ben W. Hamrick instructed the panel that it could also consider the lesser charges of voluntary manslaughter or assault with a deadly weapon, a felony that carries a prison sentence of two to four years.

Three years will automatically be added to the sentence because the jury also found that Penn intended to inflict “great bodily harm” on Jacobs.

Both defense attorney Milton Silverman and Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Carpenter declined to comment on the verdict.

Penn is charged with murder in the March 31, 1985, fatal shooting of Police Officer Thomas Riggs and attempted murder in the shootings of Jacobs and Sarah Pina-Ruiz, a civilian who had accompanied Riggs in his patrol car. He also faces charges of auto theft and grand theft for fleeing with Jacobs’ car and Riggs’ revolver.

Shows No Emotion

Penn, 24, displayed no emotion as court clerk LaRue Slaugh read the verdict.

The case has strained relations between San Diego police and the black community.

Penn, who is black, was returning from a Sunday afternoon at Balboa Park in his grandfather’s pickup truck when he was pulled over by Jacobs, who was looking for a black gang member with a gun. An altercation ensued over Penn’s refusal to take his driver’s license out of his wallet and hand it to Jacobs.

Numerous witnesses testified that the officers used night sticks to repeatedly beat Penn, who does not belong to a gang, and that Jacobs told Penn, “You think you’re bad, nigger. . . . I’ll beat your black ass.”

Jacobs, who denied ever using the word “nigger,” testified that he followed proper police procedure in trying to apprehend Penn.

One Officer Killed

Testimony indicated that Penn grabbed Jacobs’ service revolver as the officer sat on top of him and shot Jacobs once in the neck. He turned and fired at Riggs three times, killing him with the third shot, and then stood and shot twice through the driver’s side window of Riggs’ patrol car, hitting Pina-Ruiz.

After the shootings, when he apparently realized that he could not back his pickup out of the driveway, Penn drove from the Southeast San Diego neighborhood of Encanto in Jacobs’ car. On the way out, he drove over the wounded Jacobs, who was sprawled on the dirt driveway.

Jacobs, 29, whose left arm is paralyzed from the shootings and who is currently assigned to light-duty police work, said he is not satisfied with the jury’s partial verdict.

“The guy ran me over,” Jacobs said in a telephone interview. “What defense is there to that? I feel vindicated to some degree. I’m waiting for all of (the charges) to come back guilty.”