Guilty Verdict in Maniscalco Trial : Courts: Longest criminal case in O.C. history ends in second-degree murder conviction for 1980 triple killing.

Ten years to the day after his arrest, a Westminster attorney who co-founded the Hessians motorcycle gang was convicted Tuesday of second-degree murder for ordering the executions of three people, ending Orange County’s longest-running murder case.

This was the second trial for Thomas F. Maniscalco, 49, who authorities say plotted the killings in a dispute over counterfeit money and drug profits skimmed from his gang. The victims were another biker gang member, along with his girlfriend and the biker’s bodyguard, who were shot repeatedly in a Westminster ranch home on Memorial Day, 1980.

“I don’t understand the verdicts. It’s very bizarre,” Maniscalco whispered to his attorney as the verdicts were read. He joked with the bailiff and chuckled loudly as he was led from the courtroom.

A Superior Court jury deliberated 24 days--two days short of matching the state record set by Maniscalco’s previous jury in 1990--before finding him guilty of three counts of second-degree murder. More than a week ago, jurors had indicated they were deadlocked, but the judge ordered them to resume deliberating.

“I’m just delighted that the jury reached a verdict,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Rick King, who has been assigned to the case since 1988. “This case has been a nightmare for the criminal justice system--the length of the proceedings, the numbers of trial, the delays.”

The defense, however, countered with an emotional condemnation.

“Ours is a wonderful system, but innocent men are arrested, innocent men are convicted, and innocent men are executed. . . . But I still believe in the system,” said attorney Joanne Harrold, one of Maniscalco’s former law professors, who has defended him for free. “He’s innocent and (the verdict) will never be right to me.”

Maniscalco, who holds the record for the longest stay in the Orange County Men’s Central Jail, has denied any involvement in the killings.

He faces a possible prison sentence of 16 years to life for each count. Orange County Superior Court Judge Kathleen E. O’Leary is scheduled to set a sentencing date today.

The prosecution alleged that Maniscalco ordered the deaths of Richard (Rabbit) Rizzone, 36; Rizzone’s bodyguard, Thomas Monahan, 28, and Rizzone’s girlfriend, Rena Miley, 19. They were shot repeatedly in Rizzone’s Westminster home. Miley--the daughter of a now-retired Los Alamitos police officer--also was raped.

Prosecutors said Maniscalco, as co-founder of the biker gang, ordered Rizzone killed because he suspected Rizzone was skimming proceeds from the Hessians’ drug and counterfeiting business. Monahan and Miley were killed to eliminate witnesses, prosecutors believed.

Defense attorneys say Maniscalco was framed by an admitted gunman who stole drugs and money from the victims and then tried to finger Maniscalco in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

“I know that he is innocent. I will always assist and do what I can,” Harrold said.

Maniscalco’s mother, who has stood firmly by her son, expressed horror when she learned of the verdict.

“Oh no! Oh my God! How could they have done that?” said Grace Maniscalco, a 72-year-old retiree from Woodland Hills.

Harrold, a former Westminster municipal judge, said the fact that Maniscalco has sat behind bars for a decade biased jurors against him.

“If you believe in the system, it is very difficult to believe in an innocent man who has been held for 10 years. There is an automatic bias--if a person is in custody he must have done something wrong,” she said.

The prosecution had urged first-degree murder convictions, alleging that the killings were premeditated. Jurors began hearing testimony in November and started their deliberations Feb. 7. They logged 15 days behind closed doors before indicating to the judge they were having trouble reaching a verdict.

“There was a lot of tension, trying to convince other jurors we were right,” said juror June Hunter, 71.

“There was a reasonable doubt. On first degree, you have to be positive. It wasn’t difficult at all to go with second degree,” she added. “I don’t think he should spend the rest of his life in jail because he wasn’t there, but he was involved. We finally got down to that, that he was involved.”

Hunter said the jury was first deadlocked 9-3 in favor of conviction, then 10-2, then 11-1.

“There was so much involved. It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever been a part of,” she said. “We had 102 pages of jury instructions.”

Hunter said she has “a lot of empathy” for Maniscalco.

“He talked about his childhood. He made me think of him in a different way. He’s a real-life person . . . not just an object,” she said.

Another juror, who identified himself only as juror No. 6, praised the group as “12 wonderful people with open minds.”

During breaks, and on their lunch hour, jurors played cards--crazy eights and king’s corners--to try and maintain an air of normalcy and sanity, he said. But the deliberations were far from harmonious.

“You put 12 people in a room for 24 days--nobody threw punches, but there were ups and there were downs,” juror No. 6 said. “Sometimes I felt that we could have used a break. We could have used a day or two off.”

Jurors took a long time weighing whether Maniscalco was part of a conspiracy to kill, the juror said. Once everyone agreed on that, they then moved on to decide whether to convict him of first- or second-degree murder.

“There is some discomfort” about the verdict, the juror said. “I was one of the people who took a longer time to come to a decision. I felt in my heart and in my mind that I hadn’t turned over every rock.

“I’m happy with myself that I went through every piece of evidence . . . but if there was more evidence, something that could have taken me down a different road, maybe it would have.”

Maniscalco co-founded a group of motorcyclists who called themselves the Hessians--alternatively described as a biker gang by prosecutors and a biker club by Maniscalco’s defense attorneys.

The bodies of the victims were found one week after the murders in 1980. Maniscalco and fellow biker Daniel M. Duffy of Long Beach were considered key suspects from the start, but investigators said it took four years to gather enough evidence to charge them.

Prosecutors determined to bring Maniscalco and Duffy to justice offered Robert Robbins, an admitted accomplice to the murders, immunity in exchange for his testimony that Maniscalco had organized the killings and was in Rizzone’s home the night of the murders.

That agreement became a rallying point for defense attorneys, who argued that Robbins would have implicated anyone to save his own skin.

A separate jury in 1992 convicted Duffy of the slayings, but could not reach a unanimous verdict on whether Duffy should be sentenced to death for his crimes. Prosecutors decided to drop the death penalty against Duffy rather than retry the penalty portion of the trial, and also stopped seeking a death sentence for Maniscalco.

Maniscalco’s first trial lasted 17 months and was followed by jury deliberations that spanned 26 days--a state record--before jurors deadlocked 10-2 for conviction in November, 1990.

The case against Maniscalco and Duffy has proved among the costliest in Orange County history, although a financial breakdown is not available, said Alan Slater, chief administrative officer of the Orange County Superior Court.

Over the years, Maniscalco has become an advocate for inmate rights, filing lawsuits to improve jail conditions. “Wherever Tom Maniscalco is, he’s going to be a positive influence. He’s demonstrated that in his 10 years in County Jail,” said defense attorney Curt Livesay.

“He’s disappointed (with the verdict),” Livesay said of his client. “But he’s been in pretrial confinement for 10 years, and it’s remarkable that anyone who’s been in Orange County jail conditions for 10 years would show any emotion at all.”

The marathon legal drama has been dogged by so many legal maneuverings, delays and freak mishaps that the case has overshadowed the crimes themselves.

Over the years, both prosecutors and defense attorneys have blamed each other for postponements in Maniscalco’s case. At one point last year, King, who is the county’s top homicide prosecutor, and defense attorney Livesay questioned each other on the witness stand to lay blame for case delays.

On Tuesday, King praised district attorney’s investigator Don Null who he said “kept this case together” since 1981. “The credit to this finality goes to him,” King said.

“The people involved in this case--the judges, the prosecutors, the witnesses, and even the defendant himself--can go on and do other things in their lives,” he said.

Times staff writers Brian Ray Ballou and Rene Lynch contributed to this report.

After 14 Years, a Guilty Verdict

Orange County’s longest-running criminal case ended Tuesday with the conviction of attorney Thomas F. Maniscalco, a biker-gang founder charged with plotting the 1980 murders of three people. The second-degree murder verdicts came on the 10th anniversary of Maniscalco’s arrest. A look at the case by the numbers:

* Maximum possible sentence: 48 years to life in prison

* Judges assigned to case: At least 17

* Prosecutors involved over life of case: 7

* Defense lawyers involved: 6

* Prosecution witnesses who died while case pending: at least 1

* Potential defense witnesses who died or vanished: 5

* Days Maniscalco already spent in jail : 3,653

The Maniscalco Marathon

* May 31, 1980: Three people are slain in a Westminster home: Richard (Rabbit) Rizzone, 36; his girlfriend, Rena Miley, 19, and his bodyguard, Thomas Monahan, 28.

* July 30, 1982: Suspected Westminster gunman Phillip Ray Warren, 26, is killed by police in Moore, Okla., after attacking officers with a knife.

* March 15, 1984: Investigators arrest Hessians biker-gang founder Thomas A. Maniscalco, 39, at his Westminster home and fellow biker Daniel M. Duffy, 40, on a Long Beach street.

* March, 1984: Ron Nadler, 30, a prison inmate, is indicted as an accessory to the killings. Charges later dropped because statute of limitations had run out.

* May 30, 1984: Defense files motions that lead to dismissal of Maniscalco and Duffy indictments because of errors in court transcripts. Prosecution later obtains new indictments; case bogs down with complex defense motions, appeals, changes in attorneys and judges and granting of separate trials.

* May 31, 1989: Jury selection begins in Maniscalco’s first trial. Pretrial proceedings include more than 200 defense motions.

* Aug. 23, 1989: Because of illness, Judge James R. Franks II relinquishes case to Judge Kathleen E. O’Leary, but Franks is scheduled to finish one stage of jury selection. Case is delayed later by Franks’ suicide, which is unrelated to the trial.

* Jan. 2, 1990: Opening statements in Maniscalco’s first trial.

* Nov. 6, 1990: O’Leary declares mistrial when, after 26 days of deliberation, jury deadlocks 10-2 for conviction.

* May, 1991: O’Leary removes defense attorney Joanne Harrold because of concerns that lawyer’s health problems will delay Maniscalco retrial. Harrold continues to assist without pay.

* July 10, 1992: Duffy convicted of three counts of first-degree murder. Jury deadlocks on death penalty decision; he is sentenced to life in prison without parole.

* Sept. 29, 1993: Jury selection for Maniscalco’s second trial is halted when defense claims lengthy jail stay has impaired his mental status.

* Oct. 12, 1993: Separate jury finds Maniscalco competent to stand trial.

* Nov. 12, 1993: Trial jury selection completed, followed by opening statements.

* March 2, 1994: Jury reports difficulty reaching verdict after 15 days of deliberation. Judge orders them to resume.

* March 15, 1994: Jurors convict Maniscalco of three counts of second-degree murder on the 10-year anniversary of his arrest. A sentencing date has not been set.

Source: Times accounts

Researched by RENE LYNCH and ELAINE TASSY / Los Angeles Times