Inmate Convicted in One Jail Death, Acquitted of a Second

An Orange County Jail inmate accused of killing two cellmates in a medical ward in 1987 was convicted Thursday of voluntary manslaughter in one death but acquitted of all charges in the second.

Jerry T. Pick, 27, a transient with a history of mental problems since an auto accident eight years ago, faced a possible sentence of life without parole if convicted of murder in both deaths, which occurred in separate incidents two weeks apart. Voluntary manslaughter carries a maximum 11-year sentence.

The dilemma for Pick’s attorneys now is whether to proceed with a sanity hearing scheduled to begin Monday before the same Superior Court jury. If the jurors find him insane, Pick could be sent to a mental hospital for life.

Defense attorney Milton C. Grimes said that if it appears that Pick could get mental help while in prison, he might ask Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald on Monday to drop the sanity phase of the trial.

“We’re going to sit down with Jerry’s parents and discuss it before deciding what to do,” Grimes said Thursday.

The deaths created a barrage of complaints from critics of Orange County Jail’s operation, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has said Pick should never have been housed with either victim.

Jail medical officials did not discover until after the Jan. 31, 1987, strangulation of Arthur Oviedo, 25, of Santa Fe Springs, that Pick, his cellmate, had also been in the same cell with John F. Wilcox, 71, of Santa Ana, who had died on Jan. 17, 1987. A new autopsy on Wilcox showed bruises to his rib cage that had not been detected in the first autopsy.

Pick admitted to doctors later that he had kicked Wilcox in the midsection after a dispute with him and that he had killed Oviedo.

But jurors acquitted Pick in Wilcox’s death and returned the voluntary manslaughter verdict in the Oviedo killing.

“Jerry Pick should never have been tried for murder in either of these deaths,” Grimes said. “And he should never have been in the same cell with either of these men--not with what the doctors knew about his mental condition.”

But Assistant Dist. Atty. Edgar A. Freeman argued that the circumstances of Oviedo’s death showed that it had been premeditated, a condition of first-degree murder. Oviedo was strangled with a shoelace while he slept. Pick then carefully laced the string back into his shoe.

Freeman had asked for only a second-degree murder verdict in the Wilcox death, saying that Pick’s blow was a contributing factor.

The jurors, who could not be interviewed because the sanity phase is pending, deliberated less than two days.

Grimes said Pick turned to him and asked: “Did I hear that right? What does that mean?”

Grimes said he answered: “It means you’re not going to be in prison for the rest of your life, and we might have a chance to get you some help.”

Grimes argued that there was no evidence to show that Pick’s single blow to Wilcox contributed to his death. The original autopsy showed that he had died of complications from pneumonia, and his medical chart showed that he was extremely ill when first sent to the medical ward.

In the Oviedo death, Grimes argued that Pick’s mental defects prevented him from forming an intent to commit murder.

Ironically, both men had been moved into a cell with Pick after causing trouble within the medical ward. Oviedo had been moved from a medical observation room to a special room, then to Pick’s cell. Wilcox had been moved out of a larger cell because he had gotten into arguments with several cellmates.

Oviedo’s family has blamed jail officials more than Pick for what happened. Susan Oviedo, the victim’s sister, said the family is not particularly upset that Pick was not convicted of murder.

“Our focus has never been on Jerry Pick,” said Susan Oviedo, who has been spokeswoman for the family. “We see him as a victim of the system just like my brother.

“Those two should never have been assigned to the same cell.”