Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : COURTS : Car Firebombing Trial Against Mercenary Ends in Hung Jury
Frank J. Camper, 40, owner of a controversial mercenary training camp in Alabama, admitted that he had been hired by two Dana Point school teachers to provide “unconventional security.”
But federal prosecutors said that Camper went beyond mere security. They charged that he and two of his friends firebombed the cars of two former employees of the school teachers, and after a trial in Los Angeles, 11 jurors agreed.
But one juror held out through five days of deliberations. The result: a mistrial and a new trial scheduled for Feb. 10.
The holdout juror, Edward Gonzales, an office clerk, said that at no time did he favor conviction of Camper, Camper’s girlfriend, Lee Ann Faulk, 26, and his friend, William Hedgcorth, 23. Gonzales said he had not believed the prosecution testimony of two of Camper’s former associates. “I just went down the line for not guilty,” he said.
That, said fellow juror Kathy Green of Sun Valley, is exactly what happened. “We talked our heads off,” she said. “The evidence meant nothing to him. He was like a brick wall.”
She said Gonzales refused to believe that a professional soldier of fortune like Camper would be involved in such botched firebombings.
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