Jurors Deadlock on Penalty for 7-Eleven Killer

The man who shot and killed a 7-Eleven clerk working his first night shift at a La Habra store should be spared the death penalty because he had a heinous childhood, a deadlocked jury said Thursday.

Only one juror said Noel Uriel Vargas Jr., 21, should be executed for shooting Nirmal Singh. The remaining 11 jurors said Vargas should receive the lesser punishment of life without parole in state prison because he is young, has no prior criminal record and is a victim of an abusive, neglected upbringing.

“I believe that had he had parental guidance and morals and someone to teach him right and wrong, he would not be here today,” said juror Eileen Marshall, a 47-year-old Trabuco Canyon resident. “Because of that, I could not put him to death.”

Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan ordered Vargas to appear in court June 17, when the prosecution is scheduled to announce whether it will make another attempt to retry the penalty phase of the case with a new jury.

During the emotional, three-week trial, the panel watched a videotape of the killing and subsequent robbery caught by the store’s video camera on Aug. 21, 1995.

The chilling videotape stuck in the mind of Sean Murphy, the lone juror who wanted to recommend the death penalty.

“It was so vicious, so inhuman,” said Murphy, 31, of Santa Ana. “There was no mercy.”

The other jurors did not try to pressure him, Murphy said.

“In the last hour or so, we knew no matter what, we could not come to a unanimous verdict,” he said.

Singh had emigrated from India three years earlier in search of a better life for his wife and three boys. He was killed on his 44th birthday.

A Fullerton resident, he had worked at the 7-Eleven in La Habra for just two weeks before volunteering to work the night shift--despite his wife’s concerns--so he could impress his new boss.

During the penalty phase of the trial, Singh’s friends and relatives, including his 15-year-old son, testified that the family was destroyed by his death. His wife, Baljit Kaur, now suffers from mood swings, and one son, a former A-student, is failing in school.

The Singh family was not in the courtroom Thursday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Elizabeth Henderson said the jury “did what they could, but they couldn’t reach a verdict.”

Vargas smiled, and his relatives began weeping as each member of the jury told the judge that they would never be able to reach a unanimous verdict.

“I’m glad the jury studied the evidence before making a decision,” said Vargas’ mother, Iris Vacquerano. She and 13 other family members lingered outside the courtroom hugging jurors and thanking them.

During closing arguments, Vargas’ lawyer, Gary Pohlson of Laguna Hills, drew a painful picture of Vargas’ early years, when he was shuffled between his feuding parents in a relationship so contentious that at one point, his father was convinced Vargas and his brother were missing. Vargas later spotted his own face on the side of a milk carton. He was neglected to the point of not having enough food.

Last week, the same jury convicted Vargas of first-degree murder and so-called special circumstances: that the killing took place during a robbery, making him eligible for the death penalty.

The defendant’s accomplice, Benjamin Perez of Whittier, was convicted of first-degree murder and robbery in September 1996 for his role in the killing when he was 16. He was sentenced to 26 years to life in state prison.