DeHoyos Convicted 2nd Time of Girl’s Murder : Retrial: First verdict was overturned because of jury misconduct. Now jury must decide if drifter was sane during 1989 kidnap and rape of Nadia Puente.

Drifter Richard Lucio DeHoyos was convicted Monday of kidnaping, raping and murdering a 9-year-old Santa Ana girl whom he lured into his car by posing as a schoolteacher.

The verdict marked the second time an Orange County Superior Court jury has found DeHoyos, 35, guilty of the March 20, 1989, slaying of Nadia Puente, whose body was found stuffed in a garbage can in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park.

DeHoyos, who during the first trial barked like a dog and once rampaged through the courtroom, sat staring straight ahead Monday, showing no reaction to the verdict that moved him closer to death.

Surrounded by family and friends, Sara Puente, Nadia’s mother, was swept from the courtroom after the verdicts were announced. She covered her face with her hands and began sobbing in a corner of the elevator outside.

A jury recommended in 1991 that DeHoyos die in the gas chamber for his crimes, but that verdict was overturned when a judge found misconduct by three jurors during the trial. Because they still must decide whether DeHoyos was sane at the time of the murder and whether he should face the death penalty, jurors were not allowed to discuss their verdict Monday. Attorneys for both sides also declined to discuss the case, citing the ongoing trial.

Jurors will reconvene Wednesday to debate DeHoyos’ sanity at the time of the murder in the second phase of the trial. A finding that DeHoyos was sane would trigger a third phase of the deliberations, during which jurors would decide whether DeHoyos should be put to death.

DeHoyos raped Nadia and killed her by holding her head under water in a motel bathtub, crushing her chest against the side of the tub, prosecutors have said. Moments before kidnaping Nadia, DeHoyos tried to pick up another school girl who ran away, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Gannon Jr.

DeHoyos lured Nadia into his car by posing as a teacher who needed help carrying books, Gannon told jurors.

DeHoyos’ attorney, Milton C. Grimes, acknowledged throughout the trial that DeHoyos was responsible for the child’s death, but told jurors that DeHoyos suffered from a mental illness that causes violent fits. Such an outburst occurred when DeHoyos lost control and killed the little girl, he said.

But the illness prevents DeHoyos from forming the intent to kill, said Grimes, who asked jurors to spare his client a first-degree murder conviction and the so-called special circumstances finding that makes him eligible for the death penalty.

Grimes also told jurors that DeHoyos performed a sex act on the girl’s lifeless body because he wanted to see whether she was dead or just “playing possum.”

Such an act is highly irrational, but underscores DeHoyos’ mental capacity, Grimes told jurors.

But jurors apparently did not give much weight to that claim. They found DeHoyos guilty of five felony charges, including murder, kidnaping and rape and the four special circumstances that make him eligible for the death penalty.

Grimes must now try to persuade jurors that DeHoyos was insane at the time of the murder, and therefore not responsible for his actions. But Gannon told jurors during the trial that DeHoyos knew exactly what he was doing.