Jury Deadlocked in Murder Case Against Landlady : Courts: Boardinghouse owner’s lawyers have argued that the deaths of tenants buried in her back yard were accidental<i> .</i> Panel is hung up on all nine counts.

The jury deliberating the fate of Dorothea Montalvo Puente reported Monday that it is deadlocked on all nine murder charges against the Sacramento boardinghouse landlady accused of killing her tenants and burying them in the garden.

“We would like further instructions,” the Monterey County jury reported after 11 days of deliberations.

Superior Court Judge Michael Virga, who has presided over the case since jury selection began in November, called a hearing for this morning to discuss the deadlock with the jury.

“It’s going to be a long night,” the judge said as he left the courtroom.

Prosecutors alleged that Puente, 64, befriended elderly alcoholics and homeless people on government assistance, gave them homes in her Victorian boardinghouse, then murdered them for their Social Security and disability checks. Seven bodies were found buried in her back yard.

Puente allegedly forged and cashed $87,000 in checks sent to her victims and spent the money on a variety of items, including a face lift for herself.

There were no witnesses who testified to seeing the murders, however, and eight of the nine bodies were so decomposed that coroner’s investigators listed the cause of the deaths as undetermined.

Puente’s lawyers argued during five months of testimony that all nine deaths were accidental. They acknowledged that she may have forged checks sent to her deceased tenants but contended that she never murdered anyone.

Puente buried the bodies in the garden, they said, because she did not want to alert authorities that she was running a boardinghouse in violation of her parole. Puente had served a prison sentence for drugging elderly people and cashing their disability and Social Security checks.

Puente, who has been in jail since she was arrested in Los Angeles in 1988, slumped against defense attorney Kevin Clymo as the deadlock was announced. He winked and gave her a hug.

“We’re encouraged because we’ve stressed reasonable doubt and because the prosecution didn’t meet the burden of proof,” said Peter Vlautin, a second defense attorney.

Prosecutor John O’Mara left the courtroom without comment.