Deadlocked Beauregard Jury Ordered to Keep Working

After a contentious first day of deliberations Thursday, the jury in the double attempted-murder trial of former Cal State Northridge football player Jonathan Beauregard was deadlocked, 10-2.

The foreman of the eight-man, four-woman jury told San Bernardino Superior Court Judge W. Robert Fawke there was little hope of reaching a verdict. Still, Fawke instructed jurors to return on Tuesday--the next court day--for further deliberations.

After only 30 minutes of deliberations Thursday morning, jury members returned to court and announced they were deadlocked. The remainder of the day in deliberations changed nothing, the jury told the court Thursday afternoon.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Cheryl Kersy said jurors could be heard from the courtroom adjacent to the jury deliberation room arguing loudly.

Kersey said Beauregard will be tried again if there is a hung jury.

Beauregard, 23, is accused of shooting his former girlfriend, Dunyella D. Smith, and her friend, Von E. Thompson, in the parking lot of a San Bernardino bar on Aug. 29, 1994.

Thompson and a security guard at the bar have identified Beauregard in testimony as the triggerman. Beauregard and his mother, Michelle, testified that he was asleep at home at the time of the shootings.

Among the evidence presented in the trial was Beauregard’s alleged history of domestic violence against Smith. Besides the August shooting, Smith filed two police reports last year in which she claimed Beauregard hit her and threatened her life.