Mistrial Ruled in Assault on John Wayne’s Daughter
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SANTA ANA — A mistrial was declared Thursday in the case of Dr. Thomas A. Gionis, a physician charged with ordering an assault on his ex-wife, the daughter of the late actor John Wayne.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher J. Evans said that because nine of the 12 jurors voted for conviction, he intends to prosecute Gionis again.
“It shows I am still innocent,” Gionis said after the deadlock.
Prosecutors contend Gionis wanted to “teach a lesson” to Aissa Wayne on the eve of a 1988 custody trial over their two-year-old daughter.
The three holdout jurors said the prosecution’s case was damaged when a district attorney’s investigator admitted on the witness stand that “it looked like” he perjured himself in testimony about Gionis’ whereabouts before the assault.
Sharron Cooley of Anaheim, one of the holdouts, said, “had (his) information been accurate, it would have been a very easy case.”
One of the jurors who voted to convict blamed the mistrial on “just a couple of opinionated people” who “threw reason out the window.” The juror declined to give her name.
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