Mistrial Is Declared in Fatal Beating

The murder trial of a former North Hollywood schoolteacher accused of helping a mob beat a man to death ended in a mistrial Thursday in Van Nuys Superior Court.

Judge Michael Hoff declared the mistrial after the 10-man, two-woman jury announced it was hopelessly deadlocked, 11-1, in favor of convicting Denneth T. Jackson, 27, a former social studies teacher at Madison Middle School.

Jackson remained in custody and the prosecutor said she wants to retry him for the November 1994 killing.

“I’m disappointed,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino. “I believe the prosecution presented an overwhelming case, and I have absolutely no qualms about re-prosecuting it.”

Jackson’s attorney, Michael V. White, did not answer telephone requests for comment.

Prosecutors contended that Jackson led a double life as a teacher by day and a member of the Reseda Westside gang by night, which led him to join other Westsiders in pummeling Jose Aguilar to death with fists, a wood plank and a baseball bat.

Jackson testified that he did not belong to the gang and was acting in self-defense.

The five-week trial included testimony from residents of Jackson’s Reseda apartment building, who described the tall, slim teacher as an enthusiastic participant in the attack there. “He was yelling, screaming, punching, beating, laughing” as the mob beat to death Aguilar, 21, testified witness Jack Ibrahim.

Jackson testified that he invited to his apartment a pair of gang members he was trying to reform, only to have them bring about 50 friends. When a drunken Julio Aguilar, 23, crashed into the parked pickup truck of one of the party-goers, Jackson dashed outside and restrained his angry guests, witnesses testified.

But hours later, when Julio Aguilar and his brother Jose returned in a car, things turned out differently. Jackson said he again dashed downstairs to keep the peace, only to have Julio Aguilar aim a pistol at him.

Jackson said he knocked the gun from Aguilar’s hand, then pulled the man from the car. At that point, both brothers were swept away in a crowd that ignored Jackson’s pleas to stop, Jackson testified.

Jackson said he retreated to his apartment to wait for police while the others beat Jose Aguilar, who died hours later at a nearby hospital.

D’Agostino stressed that Jackson never told arresting officers he had acted in self-defense and did not mention Julio Aguilar having a gun.

Six other men arrested for the beating pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter charges and accepted 11-year prison sentences.

Jackson testified that in his youth he associated with gang members, but that after he was jumped by a rival gang and savagely beaten he decided to dedicate his life to fighting youth violence. Colleagues and friends described a man who founded CSUN scholarships and spent hundreds of hours traveling the city, encouraging minority youths to attend college and forsake the gang life.