Maniscalco’s Lawyers Will Seek New Trial : Courts: Second-degree murder convictions may have been ‘coerced,’ they say, and do not match the evidence in the case.

Defense attorneys for Thomas F. Maniscalco--convicted of second-degree murder in a dramatic end to the county’s longest criminal case--said Wednesday that they will seek a new trial on grounds that the verdicts may have been “coerced” and did not match the evidence in the case.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Kathleen E. O’Leary will hear a motion for a new trial on May 20, when she is scheduled to sentence Maniscalco.

Maniscalco, an attorney and co-founder of the Hessians biker gang, was convicted Tuesday of ordering the executions of another biker and the biker’s bodyguard and girlfriend.

Defense attorneys say the evidence centered on prosecution witnesses who depicted Maniscalco as central to a conspiracy that led to the brutal slayings on Memorial Day, 1980--allegations more fitted to first-degree murder.

First-degree murder is premeditated and carries a heavier sentence. Maniscalco faces 16 years to life in prison for each of his three second-degree murder convictions. First-degree convictions would have required a sentence of 26 years to life in prison for each count.

“We’re just concerned how it is that one legally can rationalize a second-degree verdict with the evidence this jury heard,” defense attorney Curt Livesay said.

“Our case was presented, argued and tried on the theory of, ‘Don’t believe these (witnesses). They’re lying to save their skins.’ Our view was, ‘Believe it or don’t believe it.’ ”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Rick King said Wednesday that the defense never objected to jury instructions that included second-degree convictions as an option.

“These verdicts are within the realm of the evidence, otherwise they wouldn’t have been instructed,” King said. “That’s what we have the jury for. They did not see it as first-degree. They did not see it as acquittal. But we’ve had 12 citizens in this case feel that he is guilty of murder.”

Livesay said he and co-counsel Joanne Harrold would be “reviewing the jury instructions in minute detail” and interviewing jurors to determine whether the verdicts were “coerced.”

Before reaching a verdict, jurors deliberated for 24 days--two days short of the deliberation record set in 1990 in Maniscalco’s first trial, which ended in a mistrial.

The prosecution alleged that Maniscalco ordered the deaths of biker 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, was also raped.

Prosecutors said Maniscalco ordered Rizzone killed because he suspected Rizzone was skimming proceeds from the gang’s alleged drug and counterfeiting business. Monahan and Miley were killed to eliminate witnesses, prosecutors believed.