‘Cotton Club’ Jurors Deliberating Penalties
Jury deliberations in Los Angeles Superior Court began Tuesday in the penalty phase of the “Cotton Club” murder trial of two men convicted of killing theatrical producer Roy Radin. William Mentzer and Alex Marti were convicted in July in the slaying of the New York producer during negotiations for the movie “The Cotton Club.”
Jurors will decide whether the two former bodyguards for Hustler magazine Publisher Larry Flynt should get death in the gas chamber or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Acting as his own lawyer during the penalty hearings, Marti told jurors he was asking them for neither death nor life in prison. “I’m not going to ask you for either one (of the penalties). Just make sure it’s right,” Marti said. Mentzer’s lawyer asked jurors to spare his client’s life.
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