Jury Convicts Ex-Student Who Held Class Hostage

A former San Gabriel High School student who used a semi-automatic assault rifle to hold about 60 classmates hostage last year was convicted Tuesday in Pasadena Superior Court of 11 felony counts, including false imprisonment and burglary.

But the jury was unable to reach a verdict on 10 additional counts that could have meant life imprisonment for Jeffrey Lynn Cox, now 19.

No one was injured during the 40-minute siege on April 26, 1988, when Cox, then a senior, stormed his fourth-period humanities class and fired a shot into the wall as he ordered the teacher to leave.

Cox was eventually overpowered by fellow students who wrestled him to the ground after he called the school office and threatened to start shooting people if a supply of pepperoni pizzas, cigarettes and sodas wasn’t delivered within 20 minutes.

Prosecutors had sought seven additional counts of kidnaping and three of assault with a deadly weapon. Cox had told his hostages, and also confessed to Alhambra police detectives, that he intended to try to extort $1 million in ransom.

But after deliberating nearly four days, the seven-woman, five-man jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision on those charges and Judge Terry Smerling declared a mistrial on the 10 remaining counts. The vote was 11 to 1 in favor of guilty, with the sole holdout being an alternate juror who replaced a sick member of the panel just two hours before deliberations began.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol A. Rash, who will decide by Jan. 8 whether to try Cox on those charges again, said she was disappointed with the outcome.

“It’s very frustrating,” she said. “The 11 had no problem and were very confident. . . . It was a real twist of fate.”

A sentencing date will be set following the Jan. 8 hearing.

Cox’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Arthur P. Leone, had argued during the eight-day trial that Cox was a troubled young man with a history of mental illness who had been obsessed with a similar assault from the pages of Stephen King’s novel “Rage.”

“This case is not about ransom,” Leone told jurors during his final arguments last Wednesday. “It’s about a mixed-up kid doing a rash, crazy thing for attention . . . to ease his pain.”

Cox has been held since his arrest in Los Angeles County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.