Jury Deadlocked in Earlier Trial : D.A. to Retry Man Accused in Ambush Killing of Officer

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has decided to retry a Los Angeles man whose murder trial in the ambush slaying of a police officer ended in a mistrial, a prosecutor said Monday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard L. Jenkins asked a Van Nuys Superior Court judge to set a new trial date for Duane Moody, 30, on charges of first-degree murder. Moody is accused of supplying the weapon used to gun down Los Angeles Police Detective Thomas C. Williams, 40, on Halloween, 1985, as he picked up his young son at a Canoga Park church school.

Judge Kathryne Ann Stoltz scheduled a tentative trial date of July 17. At the same time, Stoltz agreed to hear a defense motion to dismiss the charge against Moody on May 11.

Defense Atty. James Epstein said he will, among other things, ask Jenkins to provide the court with new evidence that might warrant a retrial. Jenkins said he believes that he has enough evidence for a new trial.

Stoltz declared a mistrial on the murder charge against Moody on March 20 after jurors said they were deadlocked on the verdict. The jury on March 15 had acquitted Moody on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder.

Moody was one of five men charged with first-degree murder in the Williams slaying. The same jury that deadlocked on the murder charge against Moody convicted Voltaire Williams, 26, of conspiracy to commit murder in February but acquitted him of murder.

Last month, that jury acquitted Reecy Clem Cooper, 34, of both charges.

Two other men, Daniel Jenkins, 33, and Rubin Antonio Moss, 26, were convicted of murder in a separate trial last year. In October, Daniel Jenkins was sentenced to die in the gas chamber, and two months later, Moss received a sentence of life imprisonment.

Moody admitted furnishing the automatic assault weapon used to kill the detective and was accused of helping to hide the gun. Epstein said Moody gave the gun to Daniel Jenkins because he was intimidated by him. However, he said his client had put glue in the gun’s safety in an effort to render it inoperable.

Earlier, Epstein had said to retry his client would be “a waste of taxpayers’ money.”