Jury Unable to Decide Killer’s Fate : Courts: A judge declares a mistrial when the panel deadlocks in the penalty hearing of a convicted murderer.

A mistrial was declared Wednesday in the penalty hearing of a former security guard convicted of the murder of a Pacific Palisades High School senior.

The jury foreman told Santa Monica Superior Court Judge J. L. Weisberg the panel was “hopelessly deadlocked,” evenly divided, with two members undecided, between the gas chamber or life in prison without parole.

The jury had found Rodney Garmanian, 34, guilty last month of attempted rape and first-degree murder in the June, 1988, death of 18-year-old Teak Dyer.

Jurors said they got into shouting matches and came close to physical altercations during 10 days of heated deliberations.

Some disregarded taped evidence that Garmanian had attempted to have three other people murdered while in custody, saying he was duped by police, or fantasizing. They said they could not recommend death for a loser who had no previous criminal record.

Others, like postal worker Beverly Sucich of Van Nuys, had little trouble voting for death after considering “the tapes, the three shots and the brutality.” Finally, “seven of us just wanted to get out of here,” said one juror who asked not to be identified.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lauren Weis said it is “unlikely” another jury will be empaneled, meaning Garmanian will get the lesser sentence. A decision is due by April 1.

Dyer’s bloody, battered and partially nude body--shot three times in the head and chest--was found in a bathroom of an office building in Pacific Palisades.

Garmanian, who patrolled the area for a private firm, said he had “stumbled” upon the crime scene. During the trial, however, the defense conceded that Garmanian was the killer, while insisting he was innocent of attempted rape. But jurors found him guilty of both crimes and thus eligible for the death penalty.

Defense attorneys Paul Takakjian and Ezekiel Perlo stressed their client’s lack of a criminal record, portrayed him as “a pathetic loser,” and begged jurors to show mercy.

But Weis introduced evidence that Garmanian had attempted to rape a young woman in Chicago under similar circumstances, and to solicit the murder of a detective, a prosecutor and a judge in the case while jailed for Dyer’s death.

“Society has bad eggs and he’s one of them,” she said. “If you show the same degree of sympathy that he showed toward Teak Dyer . . . then your duty, and justice, will be done.”