Jury Convicts Encino Man in Wife’s Slaying : Trial: Melvin M. Green is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without parole for arranging the murder.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury Wednesday found an Encino man guilty of arranging to have his estranged wife murdered.

Judge George W. Trammell III set an April 27 sentencing date for Melvin M. Green, who prosecutors said had his wife killed because she was involved with other men, was seeking a large divorce settlement and because Green thought she was trying to ruin his business.

Green, 56, is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole because the jury, which deliberated for nearly a week, found that there were special circumstances--a gun was used and the murder was committed for financial gain.

“This is never a happy thing, but I take satisfaction that the jury worked hard and that justice was done,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Kent C. Cahill said.

Cahill said that the jury foreman on Monday had notified Trammell that the panel had been deadlocked 11 to 1 since Friday. Trammell asked the jury to continue deliberating.

Cahill said jurors told him Wednesday that the one holdout had not participated in the deliberations. It was not until the foreman persuaded the juror to join the discussions that the jury reached its verdict Wednesday.

Arthur B. Alexander, one of Green’s two attorneys, said that he plans to file a motion for a new trial, in part because the additional days the jury continued deliberating may have pressured the lone juror to vote for a guilty verdict.

Alexander also questioned how the jury reached a guilty verdict on what was primarily circumstantial evidence.

“I’m concerned that someone could be convicted of any crime, let alone a serious crime, based upon the quality of evidence that was presented by witnesses in this trial,” he said. “Mr. Green was held strictly accountable for 10 years of inappropriate comments.”

Although no physical evidence linking Green to the murder was presented, several friends and associates of the Greens testified during the trial that in the months prior to the killing they heard Melvin Green say that he could “have anyone taken care of” and, specifically, that he could have his wife killed.

Anita Green, 42, was shot to death Oct. 25, 1990, immediately after pulling into the parking lot of her husband’s tax preparation business in North Hollywood, where she had gone to pick up her paycheck.

Police said Anita Green had been followed by a motorcyclist who stopped at the curb, walked up to her as she was getting out of the car and shot her once in the head. The motorcyclist, who was wearing a visored helmet, then sped off and has never been found.

Gilbert Mershon, a business associate of Green’s, testified that Green once told him that he could drive to the desert and “get a biker” who could ride up behind Anita Green and shoot her in the head. Mershon said he thought Green was joking at the time but warned Anita Green about her husband’s comment anyway.

Anita Green’s death shocked many in the Jewish community in Encino, where she was active in a campaign to build a permanent synagogue for the 500-family congregation of Temple Shir Chadash--The New Reform Congregation.