Inmate Stabs Prisoner Awaiting Verdict in Shootings : Crime: A man on trial in the slaying of two women at church is near death, officials say.

A man awaiting a jury’s verdict in the 1989 fatal shootings of two women at a South Los Angeles church was near death Wednesday after a fellow inmate--reportedly a member of a jailhouse gang--ambushed and repeatedly stabbed him, authorities said.

The attack on Anthony Oliver, 36, occurred late Tuesday afternoon, less than three hours after a jury began deliberating his fate and that of his brother-in-law, Albert Lewis, 31, also charged with murder in the church shooting.

In another bizarre twist, Lewis reportedly tried to kill himself at Men’s Central Jail on Wednesday morning while Oliver was in critical condition in the prisoner’s ward at County-USC Medical Center. Lewis’ lawyer, Richard Leonard, said the suicide attempt did not have anything to do with Oliver’s stabbing but occurred because of pressure Lewis felt from the trial.

Authorities identified Oliver’s assailant as Johnny Mercado, 21, another murder suspect who they said used a small saw blade to cut through the bars of his cell so he could lie in wait for Oliver behind a door.

The attack came as the older man, unable to defend himself because he was wearing leg-irons and handcuffs attached to a waist chain, was being escorted by at least one deputy to his high-security unit after a day in court, said Irma Becerra of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Mercado stabbed Oliver numerous times in the head, neck, chest and abdomen with a homemade knife, known to inmates as a shank, Becerra said.

The motive for the attack was unknown. It also was unclear why Oliver’s escort was unable to protect him.

Becerra said Mercado was a member of a gang that operates inside the jail, but Capt. Dennis C. Dahlman, the jail’s commander, said he had no evidence of such a connection.

Inmates who are housed in the high-security sections of the jail “generally are not the best of friends,” Dahlman said.

Asked how Mercado could saw himself out of his cell without anyone noticing, Dahlman said that inmates “have nothing but time.”

Lewis and Oliver are accused of opening fire on a sanctuary filed with children and others at the Mt. Olive Church of God in Christ during a Bible study session four years ago.

Killed were Patronella Luke, 35, a cousin of Lewis’ wife, Cynthia, and Eddie Mae Lee, a 76-year-old church worker who was shot in the back as she attempted to flee. Luke’s husband, Peter, was seriously wounded in the incident.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Oliver and Lewis. They contend that the shooting was the result of Lewis’ marriage breaking up, and argue that he was seeking vengeance against his wife’s friends and relatives.

Defense lawyers have noted that both gunmen in the church attack wore concealing clothing and ski masks and that neither was positively identified.

The trial has been plagued by repeated delays and was last postponed during the Los Angeles riots because jurors were afraid to go downtown. Many of the delays resulted from Lewis’ and Oliver’s requests for new attorneys.

The trial started again Jan. 4 but was halted briefly nine days ago when a slugfest involving Lewis, Oliver and Lewis’ court-appointed lawyers erupted in the courtroom of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Connor.

Connor’s clerk said Wednesday that the stabbing of Oliver would not halt jury deliberations because all the evidence had been presented.

If the jury returns a guilty verdict, however, and Oliver survives, the penalty phase of the trial may have to be postponed until he recovers.

Oliver’s lawyer, Charles Lloyd, expressed weariness with the violence connected to the case.

“I just hope he recovers,” Lloyd said, “so we can get this over with.”

Times staff writer Eric Malnic contributed to this story.