Deadlocked Jurors May Be Told to Try Again

The jury deciding the murder case of a 17-year-old girl strangled in 1988 told a judge Tuesday that it is deadlocked.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Norbert Ehrenfreund told attorneys he may ask the jury to continue its deliberations today.

Willie Ray Roberts, 36, of San Diego is accused of killing Melissa Orchulli, 17, on July 12, 1988, in a vacant house in East San Diego.

If found guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances, Roberts will face either the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

The jury, which began deliberations July 24 and even discussed the case on a Saturday, had to begin deliberating anew July 30 after a juror left on a prepaid European vacation.

An alternate juror stepped in, but since then the jury has requested that extensive testimony in the four-month trial be read back to it by a court reporter.

Ehrenfreund told attorneys that the newly formed jury had deliberated only about 2 1/2 days, not counting the rereading of testimony, which has been done in open court.

“It does seem to the court the deliberations have not been lengthy at all,” he said.

The judge read in court a note from the jury forewoman that said, “We have completed our deliberations but have been unable to reach a verdict on the remaining counts.”

On July 29, the jury convicted Roberts of two misdemeanor child-molestation counts involving two teen-age girls who walked to school in the same neighborhood in which Orchulli’s body was found.