Mistrial Is Declared for 4 in Drive-By Shooting : Courts: The jury deadlocks on conspiracy charges against the reputed gang members and acquits three of assault.

A judge declared a mistrial Tuesday in the drive-by shooting case of four reputed Thousand Oaks gang members after a jury deadlocked on conspiracy charges against four defendants and acquitted three of assault.

The Ventura County Superior Court jury already had acquitted four of eight reputed members of the Small-Town Hoods of conspiracy and assault charges on Monday.

After receiving more instructions from Judge Allan L. Steele, the jury returned to deliberate Tuesday.

Tuesday afternoon, the jury announced that it had acquitted Adolfo Alvarez, 18, Wade Caddin, 19, and Joseph Cruz, 23, of one count each of assault with a firearm in an April 27 drive-by incident in which shots were fired into a house. No one was injured in the shooting.

But the jurors said they failed to reach a verdict on conspiracy charges against the three, or on charges of conspiracy and assault with a firearm against Scott Kastan, 18.

Steele then declared a mistrial on the undecided charges and excused the jury.

The jury’s decision Tuesday followed its acquittal Monday of George Avina, 18, Marc Dean, 22, Tam Nguyen, 19, and John Pinkham, 21.

“There wasn’t enough evidence,” juror Margaret Cowan of Camarillo said afterward. “No guns, no shells, no victims.”

Juror James Hawkins of Oxnard agreed, adding that the jury instructions on the charges confused some jurors and fostered disagreements over the defendants’ guilt or innocence.

The case’s outcome has not discouraged prosecutors, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth, who oversees gang prosecutions in Ventura County.

“The outcome, disastrous as it has been, doesn’t change the office’s perspective on the situation at all, and we certainly aren’t saying, ‘Well, we never should have filed this case,’ ” Henke-Dobroth said. “This case should have been filed, and these defendants should have been dealt with this way, and we’re going to take a very strong stance on this type of gang activity in the future.”

Prosecutors had touted the case as a warning that authorities would not tolerate criminal activities by Ventura County gang members.

As the jury was being chosen Oct. 3, the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter Brown, said of the eight arrests, “By doing this, we basically shut down the gang.”

Brown could not be reached for comment after Tuesday’s verdict.

But his supervisor, Henke-Dobroth, said the case may have confused the jury.

“Suffice it to say that jury instructions, when you’re dealing with accomplice corroboration issues . . . can be very confusing to lay people,” Henke-Dobroth said. “And I think the case was perhaps further confused by the fact that there were eight defendants and eight separate attorneys expressing eight opinions to the jury. Maybe that contributed to their confusion.”

The jurors’ ballots Tuesday revealed that they remained split nearly evenly on conspiracy charges against the remaining four defendants, and on whether Kastan had committed assault with a firearm.

In June, the Ventura County grand jury indictment accused Kastan of firing the shots into the home on the 600 block of Greenwich Drive.

Henke-Dobroth said her office would decide this week whether to seek a retrial of the charges that ended in deadlock.

And defense attorneys said they will probably file motions for Steele to dismiss the remaining charges at a Dec. 6 hearing.

Alvarez, Caddin and Cruz remain free on bail. Kastan is being held in Ventura County Jail, awaiting trial on a charge of murder in the May 31 drive-by shooting of Jennifer Jordan in Thousand Oaks.

The 20-year-old mother was struck by a bullet fired at members of a rival gang on May 31.