VENTURA : Jury Convicts Man of Evading 2 Officers

After six days of deliberation, a Ventura County Superior Court jury was unable to decide whether a Ventura man aimed a gun at two California Highway Patrol officers in May.

The jury convicted Dennis D. Agdeppa, 39, of evading the officers, stealing one of the officer’s guns and exhibiting it while resisting arrest.

Those charges carry maximum terms of six months, three years and four years, respectively.

But the jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked on two additional charges of assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon.

Each assault charge carries a maximum prison term of nine years.

Agdeppa was accused of failing to pull over for a CHP officer on California 150 between Ojai and Santa Paula.

After a chase of several miles, he veered onto side roads and abandoned his car.

Officer George Orozco testified that he ordered Agdeppa to lie on the ground and started to handcuff him.

But Agdeppa grabbed Orozco’s revolver and aimed it at him and Officer Mark Rasmussen, according to the officers’ testimony.

Rasmussen fired his revolver at Agdeppa, hitting the defendant five times.

The shots caused a serious leg injury and Agdeppa still walks with a limp.

Agdeppa’s attorney, Louis Samonsky Jr., said Agdeppa took the gun because he thought that Orozco was going to shoot him.

Agdeppa was throwing the gun away when Rasmussen fired, Samonsky said.

The main issue that split the jury was whether Agdeppa intended to hurt anyone, said jury foreman Gabriel Lopez of Moorpark.

He said some jurors felt that Orozco could not have seen whether Agdeppa was pointing the gun at him because, by the officer’s own testimony, he had looked down after losing control of the weapon.

And it was unclear where Officer Rasmussen was and whether he could have seen the defendant’s actions, Lopez said.

The jurors split 8 to 4 over a guilty verdict that Agdeppa had assaulted Orozco, Lopez said, and 6 to 6 on the charge involving Rasmussen.

Lopez, who voted not guilty on both charges, said he does not believe that Agdeppa should be retried.

“I don’t think another jury is going to find him guilty,” Lopez said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Terence M. Kilbride said he would discuss with his supervisors today whether to seek a retrial.

Judge Charles W. Campbell Jr. set a hearing for Friday on whether to schedule a new trial.