Jury Starts Deliberating in James Torture Trial : Court: Singer’s lifestyle comes to the forefront of attorneys’ arguments. He is charged with 15 felony counts and could be sentenced to life in prison.

After a three-week trial that provided a window into the private world of rock star Rick James, a jury of 10 men and two women began deliberating Monday to decide if the singer tortured two women in separate incidents.

James’ attorney, Mark J. Werksman, told a San Fernando Superior Court jury that James is a drug addict with a “different lifestyle than the rest of us,” but said that smoking cocaine and having sex with two women at a time is not proof that James hurt the women.

The prosecutor tried to “demean and degrade Rick James in your eyes and reduce him to a sadistic animal so you have no compassion for him,” Werksman said. “The evidence does not stack up. The parts do not add up.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew Flier said James’ lifestyle was not on trial.

“The state is not interested in what Mr. James does behind closed doors unless it involves criminal conduct, and that’s what we have here,” Flier said. “Only someone who is a sadistic animal would do something like this.”

In response to Werksman’s argument that the women fabricated the assaults to gain media attention and money from James, Flier said, “Nobody cares about Rick James. He is a has-been.”

James, 45, is charged with 15 felony counts, including assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated mayhem, torture, kidnaping and false imprisonment. If convicted of all charges, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The first incident allegedly occurred on July 16, 1991, at James’ former home in the Hollywood Hills above Studio City. There, according to Flier, James forced a 26-year-old woman to strip naked and tied her to a chair. For the next 40 minutes, Flier said James tortured the woman by burning her legs and abdomen repeatedly with a hot knife, a lighter and a cocaine pipe.

When he stopped, James forced the woman to have oral sex with his girlfriend, Tanya Anne Hijazi, and then all three had sex, prosecutors say.

The second alleged incident occurred on Nov. 2, 1992, at the St. James’s Club hotel in West Hollywood. There, a 35-year-old friend of James testified, James invited her to join him and Hijazi for drinks and discuss a record label James had started.

But after several hours of talking, the woman, Mary Elizabeth Sauger, said Hijazi became angry and began beating her. Sauger said James later joined in the beating.

James denied hurting either woman. He said the first woman, who called herself “Courtney,” had been staying at his home, but disappeared for about two days. When she returned, he said, she had the burn marks and he insisted that she get medical attention.

James said only Hijazi struck Sauger, including once with a champagne bucket.

Hijazi, who had originally been charged along with James on similar counts, pleaded guilty to a single count of assault with a deadly weapon just before the start of trial in exchange for all other charges being dismissed.

She will be sentenced to four years in prison Sept. 21.

Outside the courtroom, James, who is best known for his 1981 hit song “Super Freak,” said that if he is acquitted he will produce a new album and start a tour with an anti-drug theme.