Jury Deliberations Begin in Ecclesia Fatal Beating Case
A prosecutor said Thursday that four Ecclesia Athletic Assn. members acted in concert to beat to death the 8-year-old daughter of the disciplinary group’s founder.
“They all committed the crime of beating Dayna Broussard to death,” Clackamas County Deputy Dist. Atty. Alfred J. French III said in his closing statement.
The jury began deliberations late Thursday on the first-degree manslaughter charges against Willie K. Chambers, 35, of San Diego; Brian K. Brinson, 31; Constance Z. Jackson, 38; and Frederick P. Doolittle, 28, all of Los Angeles.
The girl’s father, Eldridge Broussard Jr., 35, has blamed negative news coverage for his daughter’s death.
Jack Bernstein, Doolittle’s attorney, said that French’s selection of witnesses and evidence, including graphic photos of Dayna’s body, had been a calculated attempt to misdirect jurors.
Both Bernstein and Ron Thom, the attorney for Brinson, argued that French had not proved their clients guilty of manslaughter.
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