Jury Urges Gas Chamber for Slayer of Detective

A jury recommended Tuesday that a 33-year-old North Hollywood man die in the gas chamber for the 1985 ambush killing of an off-duty Los Angeles police detective who had testified against him at a robbery trial.

Daniel Steven Jenkins, who had served as his own attorney during the final phase of the trial, remained expressionless as the Van Nuys Superior Court jury recommended the death penalty for the Oct. 31, 1985, murder of Detective Thomas C. Williams.

The officer’s widow, Norma Williams, broke into tears, hugged the lead prosecutor in the case, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard L. Jenkins, then slipped out of a back courthouse exit.

Daniel Jenkins was convicted July 27 of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Williams, 42, who had testified against him at a robbery trial hours before the killing. Jenkins also was convicted of attempting to kill the robbery victim, George Carpenter of North Hollywood, on July 4, 1985, in a futile attempt to prevent him from testifying at the robbery trial.

Williams was hit eight times by automatic pistol fire as he picked up his 6-year-old son, Ryan, from a church day-care center in Canoga Park. The boy was not hurt.

Choice of Sentences

Because the jury found Jenkins guilty of killing a police officer in retaliation for performing his duties, the jury had the choice of giving him the death penalty or life in prison without possibility of parole.

Judge Judith Meisels Ashmann scheduled formal sentencing for Oct. 4. She can accept or reject the jury’s recommendation.

Howard R. Price, one of two court-appointed attorneys who represented Jenkins earlier in the trial and advised Jenkins while he acted as his own attorney, called the jury’s verdict the “most disappointing of my career.” He said he will appeal the verdict based on numerous legal errors.

But prosecutor Jenkins, who is no relation to the defendant, called it a “rock-solid” verdict. Added his co-prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. William Gravlin, “Short of a pay raise . . . this is one of the best things that can happen” to local police officers.

Jury foreman Peter Barnett of Sherman Oaks, a human resources consultant at UCLA Medical Center, said the verdict was a difficult one but that jurors felt Jenkins deserved the severest penalty in part because he had used a semiautomatic weapon and a silencer, which are illegal. Jurors also were disturbed that Jenkins, who maintained that he was innocent, showed little emotion and no remorse during the trial, said juror Joe Sims, an accountant for Rockwell International.

The jury began deliberating Aug. 23 but had to start over again last Thursday when two jurors were dismissed after they said they had seen news reports about threats that Jenkins was accused of making against the prosecutor and two witnesses.

The reports concerned a warrant that police obtained Aug. 13 to search the home of Jenkins’ wife, Kathy Smitham, for a list of people he allegedly had threatened to kill, including prosecutor Jenkins. Daniel Jenkins’ attorney, Price, denied that such a list exists.

During the trial, the prosecutor contended that Jenkins tried to hire several people to kill Williams to stop him from testifying in the robbery trial. When that failed, he contended, Jenkins killed Williams in revenge for testifying.

Jenkins’ alleged “loyal lieutenant” in Williams’ murder, Ruben A. (Tony) Moss, 26, was tried on murder and conspiracy charges before Ashmann by a separate jury that is still deliberating. Three other men also face trial next month in the killing.