Vacationing Juror Prompts New Start on Murder Deliberations

A judge ordered a jury in a capital murder case Monday to begin its deliberations again after one juror was excused from the panel to go on a prepaid European vacation.

An alternate juror was sworn in after the jury’s verdict on three minor counts was filed in the case against Willie Ray Roberts, 36, of San Diego.

Roberts is accused of strangling Melissa Orchulli, 17, whose body was found in a vacant house on Euclid Avenue in East San Diego on July 12, 1988.

If convicted, Roberts may face the death penalty or a life term in prison without parole if the jury finds that Orchulli was killed during a sex crime.

Roberts was found guilty of two misdemeanor child-molesting counts involving two girls who said he touched them inappropriately while they were walking to school in 1988 in the same area Orchulli was slain.

The jury acquitted Roberts of a misdemeanor child-molestation charge involving unlawful touching of a girl at the beach.

Because the juror’s vacation begins today, San Diego Superior Court Judge Norbert Ehrenfreund had ordered the jury to deliberate Saturday, in hopes of reaching a decision before the juror was to leave. The jurors had the testimony of five witnesses reread to them but could not reach a verdict on the murder charge.

“You must therefore set aside all deliberations and begin anew,” instructed the judge at the end of the day Monday. The verdict on the three misdemeanor counts will stand.