Mistrial Declared as Jurors Deadlock in Rape, Murder Trial

A mistrial was declared Thursday when jurors--deadlocked over some circumstantial evidence--failed to reach a verdict in the death penalty trial of a man accused of the rape and murder of a young Fullerton woman.

Andrew McCarter, 31, whose own brother testified against him, is accused of following 24-year-old Julie Fenton home from the Fullerton bar and restaurant where she worked and killing her at her apartment on June 21, 1986.

Jurors, who deliberated more than five days, deadlocked 8 for guilty and 4 for not guilty. Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald, who declared the mistrial, ordered attorneys in the case to report back Tuesday to see if a new trial date should be set.

Fitzgerald, at the jurors’ request, had given added instructions on the definition of circumstantial evidence to help them after more than three days of deliberations. But after two more days of deliberations, they could not reach a unanimous verdict.

Other Evidence

Deputy Dist. Atty. Melvin L. Jensen, who declined to discuss the case, left the courtroom clearly disappointed.

The district attorney’s office had expected its biggest battle to be in the penalty phase.

If McCarter had been convicted of both the rape and murder, jurors would have been asked at a separate penalty hearing to decide on a verdict of death or life in prison without parole. Court papers show that prosecutors had planned to introduce as evidence in the penalty hearing that McCarter had assaulted numerous women in recent years, and had raped both of his ex-wives.

While deadlocked juries in murder cases are rare, they are even rarer in the guilt phase of death penalty cases.

“Not too many death penalty cases are real whodunits,” said one Orange County prosecutor this week. “The real fight in most death penalty cases is usually in the penalty phase.”

McCarter’s attorney, George A. Peters Jr. of Santa Ana, agreed.

“This is one of the most unusual cases I’ve ever been involved in,” Peters said. “While some of the evidence points to my client, none of it is conclusive. The jurors who voted for ‘not guilty’ found that it was just too circumstantial.”

Peters and Jensen are scheduled to meet before returning to court next week. But Peters said he is pessimistic that he and the prosecutor can reach an agreement that would preclude a second trial.

“There might be some options, but it looks like they (the district attorney’s office) are going to want to try this case again right away,” Peters said.

McCarter, who is in custody in Orange County Jail, was a customer at Elmer’s Place, where Fenton was a waitress. On June 20, 1986, he was seen, along with his brother, Michael McCarter, at a table where Fenton and others were sitting after she got off duty.

Several witnesses testified that they saw a red truck similar to Andrew McCarter’s parked in front of her apartment after midnight that night. Medical evidence shows that she was killed just a few hours after she was last seen at the bar, probably between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. She was found strangled and partially nude in her apartment later that day when she failed to show up at work.

Jensen also produced evidence that the imprint from a ring found on her body was consistent with a ring of McCarter’s. Tests also showed that she was raped by someone with McCarter’s blood type, and a hair found on her body was consistent with McCarter’s own hair.

But Peters claims that all of this evidence was “inconclusive.”

“No one could say for sure it was his truck; and 35% of the people in the country have his blood type,” Peters said.

McCarter’s brother, Michael, testified that Andrew McCarter admitted to him that he had killed the young woman. But Peters attacked Michael McCarter’s credibility, and some of the jurors who voted not guilty apparently found the brother unconvincing.

Fenton worked full time at a health spa and part time at the bar and restaurant. She had graduated the year before from Cal State Fullerton.