Ng Jury Deadlocked on 1 Murder Count

After more than two weeks of deliberations, the jury in the serial-murder trial of Charles Ng said Tuesday it is deadlocked on one of the dozen murder charges.

Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan scheduled a hearing today to discuss the impasse and decide how to proceed in one of the longest and costliest murder prosecutions in California history.

The jury did not indicate Tuesday whether it had reached verdicts on the other 11 counts faced by Ng. If jurors have agreed on verdicts, it’s unclear whether they will be read today.

Ng, 38, is accused of killing seven men, three women and two baby boys in a secluded cabin property in Calaveras County 14 years ago. According to authorities, Ng and his survivalist friend Leonard Lake lured their victims to Lake’s cabin located about 150 miles east of San Francisco.

Authorities allege that Ng and Lake killed them for financial gain and sexual gratification. Lake was arrested in 1985 but during interrogation, he killed himself by swallowing cyanide pills sewn to his lapels.

Most of the victims came from the San Francisco area, but they also included a Calaveras County family and a San Diego resident, Scott Stapley.

Ng’s defense attorneys declined to comment on the jury’s announcement. But family members of victims expressed concern at the impasse. “It makes me apprehensive,” said Virginia Nessley, 74, whose son Paul Cosner is among the victims.

Nessley, who traveled from Columbus, Ohio to watch the now 4-month-long trial, said the jury requested earlier Tuesday to have portions of testimony regarding Cosner’s case read back to them.

“It makes me wonder whether it is about Paul,” a distraught Nessley said.

The latest development represented yet another twist in Ng’s legal saga. Lake and Ng were spotted shoplifting in a lumberyard in South San Francisco in 1985. Lake was arrested on suspicion of shoplifting, but Ng escaped and fled to Canada. Ng was arrested in Calgary a month later, but it took California authorities six years to extradite him. The case was transferred to Orange County in 1994 because of pretrial publicity in Calaveras.

The trial began dramatically in October with chilling videotape footage showing two women allegedly forced into becoming “sex slaves” and ended with the unexpected testimony by Ng himself. During his testimony, Ng said he was helping Lake in what he believed was a sadistic sexual game when they made the tape.

He said he did not know Lake intended to kill anybody, although he admitted helping to bury two of the victims.