Jury Can’t Agree on Life or Death for Ex-Policeman; Mistrial Declared

The jury that convicted a former Los Angeles police officer of the murder of a Northridge businessman deadlocked Tuesday over a possible death sentence, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial in the penalty phase of the trial.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Darlene E. Schempp dismissed the jury on its fourth day of deliberations after jurors said they could not agree on whether Richard Herman Ford should be sentenced to die or spend life in prison without possibility of parole for a 1983 contract killing.

The jury’s foreman told Schempp that the panel had been deadlocked 11 to 1 since deliberations began and had exhausted hope of reaching agreement.

Schempp sealed the jury’s deliberations and admonished jurors not to talk about the matter until a separate jury decides the punishment of Ford’s co-defendant, former Los Angeles police officer Robert Von Villas.

2 Ex-Officers Convicted

Ford, 48, of Northridge, and Von Villas, 44, of Simi Valley, were convicted by separate juries of first-degree murder and conspiracy in the case of Thomas Weed, who disappeared in February, 1983, and has never been found. Prosecutors said the two officers murdered him and buried the body in the desert in exchange for $20,000 from Weed’s ex-wife, Janie E. Ogilvie. She was sentenced to 15 years to life for her part in the case.

The penalty phase of Von Villas’s trial began earlier Tuesday with Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert O’Neill asking jurors to sentence Von Villas to death for Weed’s killing. O’Neill presented witnesses who testified that the two officers burglarized a Northridge jewelry store in 1982 and attempted to kill an exotic dancer in 1983 to collect her insurance policy.

Schempp scheduled a Dec. 23 hearing on whether a new jury should be impaneled to retry the penalty phase of Ford’s trial. Essentially, that would entail a full rehearing of the guilt phase of the trial since the jury would have to be told of the evidence against him, officials said. The conviction would stand, however.

If the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office decides not to seek a new penalty phase hearing, Schempp would have the option of sentencing Ford to life in prison with or without the possibility of parole, Assistant Dist. Atty. Curt Livesay said.

Jury’s Vote

Livesay said his office will base the decision in part on the jury’s vote and on discussions with the prosecutor and Ford’s two defense attorneys, who were allowed to discuss the deliberations with jurors but forbidden to talk to reporters about them.

Some jurors cried on several occasions during the 2-week-long penalty phase of the trial, which included testimony that Ford came from a broken home, was sexually molested by his mother at the age of 8 and suffered from delayed-stress syndrome because he served two tours of duty with the U.S. Army in Vietnam.

The conviction was the second this year for Von Villas and Ford. Both were sentenced in March to 35 years to life in prison for attempting to kill Granada Hills exotic dancer Joan Loguercio in 1983 to collect a $100,000 life insurance policy and for the 1982 robbery of a Northridge jewelry store.