Discounted Main Defense : Jurors Viewed Whitworth as ‘Sneaky’ and ‘Greedy’

They began their deliberations by tossing out adjectives to describe Jerry A. Whitworth, the man whose fate they were about to decide, using words like “kind,” “loyal” and “generous.”

But as they considered the evidence against him, the seven women and five men soon came up with a different set of adjectives, such as “sneaky” and “greedy.”

“Walker was able to pander to that greedy side,” said juror Roland Young, a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. employee, referring to John A. Walker Jr., the key government witness against Whitworth.

It was Walker, the confessed spy ring leader, who recruited Whitworth, the former Navy radioman, with a promise that he could earn up to $2,000 a month in cash for stealing naval codes.

Vital Information

The jury quickly concluded that Whitworth knew that such vital information was headed to the Soviet Union, thus discounting Whitworth’s main defense that he would not have knowingly spied for the Soviet Union and that he tried to quit as soon as he realized Walker had sold the secrets to the Soviets.

“Where else could it have gone, but to the Soviets? That was decided in 10 minutes,” said juror Ross Browne, a grocery store produce manager.

Whitworth had claimed that he thought the secrets went to Israel.

On Thursday, they convicted Whitworth on seven counts of espionage and five counts of tax evasion. Whitworth faces multiple sentences of life in prison, one for each of the seven espionage counts, plus 17 years for tax fraud. Judge John P. Vukasin set Aug. 28 for sentencing.

“He succumbed to greed. That was his downfall,” Browne added. “I think Jerry knew exactly what he was doing. They both did it for the money, and there was a lot of money.”

Banker to Bartender

In all, the jurors, who had taken time off from jobs ranging from banker to bartender, spent 10 days and roughly 52 hours before emerging from the cramped jury room with their verdicts. In interviews on Friday, four jurors recalled their deliberations.

Even though Whitworth’s lawyers admitted many of the charges against him, the jurors said they approached their task methodically, starting with the first count in the 13-count indictment and lining up evidence to support each allegation.

One juror described the 10 days of deliberations as “grueling.”

They placed charts on the walls of the jury room and jotted down pieces of information pointing both to Whitworth’s guilt and innocence. With that done, they took votes. If the count was less than unanimous, the jurors went on to another count.

“There were 13 decisions that had to be made. There were 12 people on each count, so you can imagine the time it took,” another juror said, asking that her name not be used. “It was kind of a roundtable discussion, though the table was rectangular . . .

“Everybody wanted to feel 100% sure about each count. The only way we could do that was to bring every piece of evidence into it.”