Jury Convicts Man in Slaying During Robbery at ATM : Verdict: Christopher Arthur Mann, 21, faces the death penalty for the shooting death of Hans Christian Herzog, who had just deposited money at a Lancaster bank.

A Superior Court jury has found a convicted auto thief guilty of murdering a bank customer during a Lancaster robbery that was videotaped by an automated teller machine’s security camera.

Attorneys in both sides of the case said the video footage of the crime and self-incriminating statements set the stage for the verdict against 21-year-old Christopher Arthur Mann, who escaped from a Van Nuys halfway house a week before the robbery and fatal shooting of Hans Christian Herzog.

Jurors concluded four hours of deliberations Thursday and found Mann guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances, making him eligible for the death penalty. At the end of the trial’s penalty phase, which begins Jan. 3, jurors will recommend one of two sentences: death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Sheriff’s investigators charged that on March 5, 1993, Mann used a sawed-off rifle to kill ATM customer Herzog, then stole the 44-year-old Lancaster resident’s car.

“It was a terribly straightforward case of murder that occurred in the course of a robbery,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela R. Rogers said Friday. “We had overwhelming evidence from a variety of sources.”

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The slaying of Herzog, a telephone company worker and father of two, received wide attention because such random murders are rare in the Antelope Valley.

Investigators alleged that Mann and an accomplice, Wesley Dean Harper, 24, drove around Lancaster in a pickup truck, looking for someone to rob outside a bank. At about 6 a.m., they stopped at a Bank of America branch on Lancaster Boulevard, where Herzog had just used an ATM, deputies said.

Mann jumped out of the pickup, asked Herzog to light his cigarette, then followed him back to his car, they said. Mann then shot Herzog in the head, dragged him out of the vehicle and drove away in Herzog’s car, while Harper fled in the pickup, investigators said.

Herzog had made a deposit at the bank just before he was killed, but did not withdraw any cash, investigators said.

A separate trial last May ended when Harper pleaded guilty to first-degree murder under an agreement in which he was sentenced to 26 years in prison, with the possibility of parole. He also was required to testify against Mann.

Rogers, the prosecutor, said Harper placed Mann at the murder scene, and the ATM tape allowed jurors to see part of his confrontation with Herzog.

“They saw him stalking the victim,” she said. “You can see him holding a rifle in the direction of the victim’s head.”

Although the camera did not record the shooting itself, it did show Mann dragging Herzog’s body out of his car. “That’s pretty damning,” Rogers said.

Other witnesses at the trial included Mann’s acquaintances, who said they heard him discuss the crime, and sheriff’s deputies, who said Mann, a former Palmdale resident, led them to Herzog’s car and keys after his arrest.

During the trial, Mann’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Earl Siddall, asked the jury to return a second-degree murder verdict, which would have spared Mann the possibility of a death sentence. He argued that Mann did not intend to kill Herzog but pulled the trigger accidentally when he was startled by Herzog’s car horn when it went off during the confrontation.

Siddall said he was disappointed by the verdict, which came at the end of a trial viewed by Mann’s relatives. “It’s sad for the victim’s family; it’s sad for the defendant’s family,” he said.

During the penalty phase, Siddall said, he plans to introduce evidence that Mann suffers from drug-related mental health problems, and he will argue against a death sentence.

Rogers, who will be sworn in as a Municipal Court judge on Jan. 2, said another prosecutor will outline Mann’s criminal history during the penalty phase.

A few weeks before the slaying, Mann was transferred from state prison, where he was serving time for auto theft, to a halfway house in Van Nuys.

Herzog’s widow is expected to make a statement during the penalty phase, in which the prosecutor will urge that Mann be put to death, Rogers said.