Jury Finds Lucas Guilty in Three Slasher Slayings : But Panel Deadlocks on Two Other Murder Counts and Finds Him Not Guilty of Still Another Killing

After eight days of deliberations, a jury convicted carpet cleaner David Lucas Wednesday in the throat-slash murders of three people and the attempted murder of another. The panel deadlocked on two other murder charges.

The jury of six men and six women who convicted Lucas, 33, of Spring Valley found that the multiple murders were committed with special circumstance, which could result in a death sentence for Lucas, who has been in custody in San Diego County Jail since December, 1984. The jurors will return next month to deliberate on the sentence.

The jurors’ decision follows a 56-day trial that began on Jan. 3, making it one of the longest criminal trials in San Diego history. Prosecutors and defense attorneys began jury selection last August.

No Sign of Emotion

Lucas sat impassively while the verdicts were announced and showed no signs of emotion. While waiting for the jury to enter, Lucas spent the time smiling and talking to his attorneys. He never acknowledged his family, who sat in the front row behind him.

Lucas was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1979 deaths of Suzanne Jacobs, 31, her son, Colin, 3, and the 1984 death of Anne Catherine Swanke, 22. Jacobs and her son were found in their Normal Heights home with their throats slashed. Swanke, a San Diego State University student, also had her throat slashed and her body was found on a remote hillside in Spring Valley.

The jury also convicted Lucas in the attempted murder of Jody Santiago Robertson. Robertson, a Seattle woman, survived a June 9, 1984, attack by Lucas, who choked her and slashed her throat. Lucas was also convicted of kidnaping Robertson, who testified for the prosecution at the trial, and of kidnaping Swanke.

In each of the kidnaping and attempted murder convictions, the jury found that Lucas used a deadly weapon and inflicted great bodily injury. Theoretically, the findings could lead to stiffer penalties for Lucas on the convictions.

Lucas was acquitted in the death of Gayle Roberta Garcia, a Pt. Loma realtor who was found with her throat slashed in a vacant Spring Valley house on Dec. 8, 1981. Jurors were unable to convict Lucas for the deaths of Rhonda Strang, 24, and Amber Fisher, 3, both of Lakeside. Strang was baby-sitting the child when their throats were slashed on Oct. 23, 1984. The jury foreman told Superior Court Judge Laura Hammes that after taking four or five votes the jury was deadlocked 11 to 1 for conviction.

Possibility of Gas Chamber

Lucas, who now faces the possibility of dying in California’s gas chamber, had already served a four-year sentence at the California Youth Authority for the 1973 rape of a young woman. The woman was abducted and taken to Cowles Mountain, where Lucas raped her and used a knife to cut her hands and throat, but she survived the attack.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Williams declined to comment after the verdicts were announced. Defense attorneys Alex Landon and Steve Feldman also walked out of the courtroom and brushed past reporters. “There’s nothing we can say right now,” Feldman said brusquely.

John Swanke, father of Lucas’ last victim, Anne Swanke, noted that Lucas’ convictions came almost four years and seven months after his daughter was murdered.

“I am very, very pleased . . . It was the only verdict they could have come up with,” said Swanke. “I’m pleased that they got it through and we’re now done with the trial.”

Lucas’ family, which consisted of his mother, sister and others, walked out of the courtroom without talking to the media. While John Swanke was facing television cameras, one of Lucas’ relatives stood at the far end of the long hallway, dabbing at her eyes.

Because of the attorneys’ refusal to comment, it was not known Wednesday if the prosecution will choose to retry Lucas for the killings of Strang and Amber Fisher.

There was some confusion when the clerk read the verdicts out loud. Some of the counts were juxtaposed and the judge ordered him to read the verdicts again. Defense attorneys asked that each juror be polled after the reading of each count, but waived the polling on the not guilty finding in the death of Garcia.

Wednesday marked the beginning of the end for an era that saw three notorious murderers incarcerated at the downtown County Jail at the same time. Lucas was the last of the killers to be brought to trial. Kevin Cooper, whose trial was moved here from San Bernardino in October, 1984, was convicted in 1985 in the stabbing deaths of four people. Joselito Cinco was arrested in September, 1984, and convicted in 1988 in the slayings of two San Diego Police officers and the attempted murder of another.

Both Cooper and Cinco were already in the County Jail when Lucas was arrested in December, 1984.