Jury Is Split Over Alleged Hit Man

After deliberating less than two days, a jury declared Monday it was hopelessly deadlocked in trying to reach a verdict in the attempted-murder trial of Paul Gordon Alleyne, accused of shooting a San Clemente businessman in a botched contract hit.

The victim, James Wengert, had positively identified Alleyne in court as the man who shot him in the face in a San Clemente parking garage April 10, but Alleyne’s attorney argued during the trial that prosecutors had the wrong man.

Seven of the jurors voted not to convict Alleyne, while five believed he is guilty, said defense attorney Federico Sayre.

“At least two of the five who voted guilty told me they didn’t think he was the shooter but that he had something to do with it,” Sayre said.

Authorities allege that Alleyne, 32, was ordered by Coleman Allen, the late owner of Premium Commercial Services Corp., of Huntington Beach to kill Wengert for part of his $500,000 insurance policy, which listed Premium as the sole beneficiary.

Alleyne, who owned a Los Angeles auto parts business, was given the order because he owned $30,000 to Allen, authorities allege.

The shooting left Wengert, 48, with a scar, a broken jaw and five shattered teeth. Wengert, a private investigator, admitted that he owed Premium money--a figure that Allen had estimated to be as high as $400,000. Wengert contended that he owed no more than $71,000.

In June 1995, the victim’s wife, Margaret “Peggy” Wengert, filed a lawsuit against Premium Commercial, which was trying to seize their home over the debt.

Three days later, Fountain Valley flight attendant Jane Carver, 46, was shot to death in what police believe was a case of mistaken identity, with Wengert’s wife the intended target.

The Wengerts’ former home, which was in Peggy Wengert’s name, was near Carver’s Fountain Valley house. Carver was shot in the face about a block from her home near Mile Square Regional Park.

The suspect in the Carver shooting, Leonard Owen Mundy, is awaiting trial. Sayre suggested during the trial that the assailant initially described by Wengert looks more like Mundy than his client. Mundy, like Alleyne, owned a small Los Angeles-area business and owed Premium money.

Sayre said that despite Wengert’s identification of Alleyne in court, there were significant differences between his early physical description of the shooter and Alleyne.

Wengert initially described his assailant as about 5 feet 9 inches tall, with an earring and beard, Sayre had told jurors. The attorney said his client is over 6 feet tall, has never had a pierced ear and is unable to grow a beard, as proved in a jail experiment monitored by a dermatologist.

“We put [Alleyne] into solitary confinement for 35 days to show that he could not grow a beard along his jawline,” Sayre said. “They have the wrong guy. Normally in a criminal defense case, you just sit back and poke holes. We put on an affirmative case that proved another guy was the shooter.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Glazier, who prosecuted the case, said Alleyne will be tried again on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, robbery and attempted murder. His new trial is set to begin Feb. 10.

Glazier would not discuss the jury’s deadlock, but Sayre was critical of the prosecutor’s decision to retry the case.

“I suppose they feel they have to do this,” Sayre said. “I told them from the very beginning that they shouldn’t charge him with the shooting. The evidence was very clear that he did not do it.”