County : Convicted Killer Denied New Sanity Phase Jury
A former Saddleback College official, convicted last November of killing his former wife, lost a bid to have a new jury hear the sanity phase of his trial.
Donald E. Dawson, who fired his attorney after he was found guilty of fatally shooting Dona Mae Dawson in 1984, made the request to Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Leary. But O’Leary said the same jury will be seated when the sanity phase begins March 30.
“I think we have to give those jurors some credit,” O’Leary said, noting that they not only sat through all the testimony but traveled to the site of the El Toro shooting.
Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James G. Enright said that if Dawson is found to have been sane during the crime, the conviction will be upheld. If the jury finds otherwise, he said, defense attorneys probably will seek a new trial. Seating a new jury would have meant a “full-blown replication of all the evidence,” he said.
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