SANTA ANA : Jury Says Maniscalco Competent for Trial

A lawyer and founder of a motorcycle gang is mentally competent to stand trial on three counts of first-degree murder in the county’s longest running criminal case, a jury determined Tuesday.

Concluding a rare proceeding in which jurors are asked to determine a defendant’s mental competence, a Superior Court jury deliberated less than three hours before rejecting testimony that Thomas Maniscalco, 48, suffers from a diminished mental capacity.

Defense attorney Curt Livesay raised questions about his client’s mental state after jury selection in the case began last month before Judge Kathleen E. O’Leary.

“I’m disappointed I was unable to persuade the jury that my client has a problem and has been rendered unable to assist me in his defense,” Livesay said.

But in another twist to the unusual case, Maniscalco is pleased with the jury’s verdict because he wants to go to trial to prove he is innocent, Livesay said.

Prosecutor Richard M. King said the jury’s verdict puts the murder trial back on track.

“There was pretty overwhelming evidence of his competency,” King said. “We’re now looking forward to the trial.”

The trial would come more than 13 years after two men and a woman were killed in Westminster on Memorial Day, 1980.

Prosecutors allege that Maniscalco, founder of the Hessians motorcycle gang, masterminded the slayings of Richard Rizzone, 36, Rena Miley, 19, and Thomas Monahan, 28, because he believed they were skimming funds from the gang’s alleged drug operations. Miley was also raped.

The case against Maniscalco has been repeatedly delayed by separate proceedings for a co-defendant, appellate court rulings on a variety of legal issues and a mistrial in November, 1990, after a jury deadlocked with a majority in favor of convicting Maniscalco.