‘Fatal Attraction’ Murder Trial Ends in Deadlock

The so-called “Fatal Attraction” murder trial of a former schoolteacher accused of killing her lover’s wife ended Saturday when the jury declared that it was hopelessly deadlocked after 11 days of deliberations.

It was the second time that jurors deliberating the fate of Carolyn Warmus had told Westchester County Judge John Carey they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. He had ordered them to try again after the first time Thursday.

Warmus sobbed after Carey excused the jury Saturday. Dist. Atty. Carl Vergari said Warmus will be retried on the second-degree murder and weapons’ possession charges.

The defendant sat silently in the courtroom with her attorney as it emptied out. She would not speak with reporters.

The jury wrote “N-O” in block letters to answer a note from the judge asking: “Do you believe an agreement on either of the two charges is possible or likely within a reasonable time?”

“I don’t think anyone would dispute that Tuesday until this morning has indeed been extensive,” Carey said of the jury’s long deliberation.

He did not immediately order a mistrial. In New York, a judge can declare a hung jury and release jurors without formally ordering a mistrial.

“I’m satisfied that any agreement among you on the two charges . . . is unlikely within a reasonable time,” Carey told the jurors after they returned to the courtroom. “This finding provided the basis for my now discharging you.”

Warmus, 27, was charged with killing her former lover’s wife, Betty Jeanne Solomon, 40, on Jan. 15, 1989. Prosecutors say she was obsessed with Paul Solomon, 44, and wanted to have him all to herself.

The pair met on the faculty of an elementary school in September, 1987. Warmus was a new teacher and Solomon, also a teacher, befriended her. Soon they were romantically involved.

“My family and I are devastated by the knowledge this nightmare must go on,” Solomon said after the non-verdict Saturday.

Since Warmus’ trial began, the courtroom was packed with spectators and reporters, drawn by comparisons between the killing and the 1987 film “Fatal Attraction,” in which Glenn Close terrorized her married lover and his family.

The jurors appeared concerned about the husband’s activities after he left home the day of the murder to meet Warmus until he returned home and found his wife’s body.

The defense claimed that Solomon hired private investigator Vincent Parco to kill his wife and that Parco framed Warmus. Parco testified for the prosecution that he sold Warmus, the daughter of a wealthy Michigan insurance executive, a gun equipped with a silencer for $2,500.

The jury was divided 8 to 4 in favor of a conviction for a full week, said juror Bob Smith. Among the holdouts was one juror who told the rest, “ ‘I don’t want to fry anybody,’ ” Smith said.

Smith, 27, said deliberations were “heated at times” and that several jurors were “obstinate in their ways.”

Defense attorney David Lewis said he will ask for a dismissal of the murder indictment at a May 29 hearing.