Mellinger Guilty of Manslaughter, the Jury Decides

Van Nuys Superior Court jurors tried for four days to decide whether Carole Evelyn Mellinger plotted to kill her millionaire husband or shot him accidentally. Monday, they agreed she had done neither and convicted Mellinger of voluntary manslaughter.

“A lot of us knew in our hearts that she probably did it but the evidence was not there,” said juror Hyman Chase, 61, of Beverly Hills. “The best compromise that we could all live with is voluntary manslaughter.”

Under the law, voluntary manslaughter means that Mellinger had not planned to kill her husband but had acted in the heat of passion.

Mellinger, 48, testified during the trial that she thought her 69-year-old husband, Brainerd, was a burglar when she shot him four times with a handgun in the den of their house as he came home for the evening.

She said that she had expected her husband to spend the night away from their hillside house in the 19700 block of Komar Drive in Tarzana.

“We couldn’t convince ourselves of malice and premeditation,” which are required for a murder conviction, said jury foreman Burton Seidman, 54, of Woodland Hills. One juror said that on the initial ballot, voting ranged from first-degree murder to involuntary manslaughter.

Several jurors said Mellinger was not a credible witness when she testified on her own behalf. In particular, she seemed unable to remember answers to prosecution questions but had no problem answering questions from her lawyers, jurors noted.

Chase said Mellinger also showed “a total lack of remorse or concern about her husband” while being questioned by Los Angeles police detectives after the killing. The tape was played for jurors by prosecutors.

Paul Caruso, one of Mellinger’s two attorneys, said he was “very disappointed. I thought it should have been a verdict of not guilty . . . or at most involuntary manslaughter.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ann Korban said she thought “the jury did a good job” and had no quarrel with the verdict.

Wearing a royal blue dress, Mellinger sat impassively as the verdict was read. Family members in the courtroom, including her mother and eight brothers and sisters, were disappointed and angry.

Mellinger later described Korban as “the most hateful woman I’ve ever seen in my life. She hated me from day one. All she did was glare at me through the whole thing.”

Korban expressed surprise at Mellinger’s remarks and said: “I had nothing against her. I had no vested interest nor did I have any emotional feeling one way or another.”

During the trial, Korban alleged that Mellinger shot her husband because he had been having an affair for 12 years and because she feared that his plans to sell his import-export business would decrease the value of his estate.

Mellinger testified that she loved her husband of 23 years and did not mind that he was having an affair.

Mellinger’s attorneys contended that she was simply very drunk that night.

Thomas Byrne, Mellinger’s co-counsel, called the shooting “a woman’s worst nightmare. It might be the best example of why you do not have guns in your home.”

Court Judge Darlene Schempp scheduled sentencing for Jan. 7. Mellinger faces a maximum sentence of 13 years in prison but could receive probation, Korban said. Mellinger has no prior criminal record, prosecutors said.

Schempp refused a request from Korban to jail Mellinger immediately. Mellinger has been free on $400,000 bail since the shooting.