Jury Still Out on Policeman’s Accused Killer

A jury will today continue deliberating the fate of accused cop-killer Stacy Butler, but it did find him guilty Monday of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

A San Diego Superior Court jury will begin its 17th day of deliberations in the murder case against the 29-year-old gang member, who is charged with the 1988 shooting of Officer Jerry Hartless, 24. No date was set for sentencing on the gun charge.

When jurors were summoned to the courtroom Monday afternoon, Judge William Kennedy asked foreman Jane Shea if the panel was making progress.

Shea said further deliberations would help in reaching a verdict, but she also said the jury’s vote after six ballots on the murder charge was 7 to 5--the same deadlock the jury reported last week. Shea was instructed not to reveal which direction the jury was leaning. She also disclosed that jurors were deadlocked, 10 to 2, on a second weapons charge.

In another development, one juror wrote a note to the judge regarding a health problem. A juror met with the judge and attorneys in chambers, but attorneys said afterward that they had been instructed not to disclose specifics of the closed hearing.

The attorneys are to meet with Kennedy today about the health matter. Defense attorney Bill Nimmo said the medical problem is “probably related to stress.”

If a juror must be replaced with an alternate, by law the jury panel must disregard the previous 16 days of deliberations and start anew with the new juror. The jury has reheard detailed testimony from nine witnesses.

If the jury convicts Butler of first-degree murder and finds special circumstances, it could recommend the death penalty.

Hartless was shot in the forehead Jan. 9, 1988, and died three weeks later.