LOCAL : Keep Trying, Judge Tells Rader Jury
Despite a note from jurors that they were having trouble reaching a verdict, a judge has ordered deliberations to continue in the trial of Harvey Rader on charges that he murdered a Northridge family of four.
The foreman of the jury sent a note to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lorna Parnell on Monday saying, “It is apparent we cannot come to a total agreement.”
The foreman told the judge on Tuesday, however, that further deliberations might produce a unanimous verdict. Parnell then ordered the jury of six men and six women to resume deliberations, now in their third week.
Rader, 47, a British citizen, is charged with the murders of Israeli immigrant Shlomo Salomon; his wife, Elaine, and their two children, Michalle, 15, and Mitchell, 9. The family disappeared from their Northridge home Oct. 12, 1982, and are presumed dead. Their bodies have never been found.
If convicted, Rader, the former owner of a Reseda auto body shop, could be sentenced to death.
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