Suspects in Officer’s Killing Reportedly to Plead Guilty

Four street gang members have agreed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the 1988 killing of a rookie San Diego police officer, sources close to the negotiations between defense attorneys and prosecutors said Monday.

The guilty pleas, expected to be announced in court Thursday, will mean that three of the four will be set free almost immediately because they have been behind bars since being charged in the early 1990s. The fourth is serving time for another crime and is not eligible for release.

The four were convicted of murder in 1994 and given life sentences.

But the convictions were set aside last year by the state appellate court in an opinion that blasted prosecutors for hiding from jurors the fact that a jailhouse informant was given a reduced sentence and special treatment while in custody.

The informant, a former gang member, provided the key testimony that convicted four members of the Lincoln Park Syndo Mob of murdering Officer Jerry Hartless, 23, a former Marine and star athlete. Hartless was shot and killed as he chased a drug suspect in a dark alley at midnight.

Hartless’ widow, Shawn Dee Hartless, told KGTV, the local ABC affiliate, that she learned of the impending plea bargains Sunday from Police Chief David Bejarano. “Jerry’s dying is not the only injustice in this case,” she said tearfully.

The case has been fraught from the beginning with allegations that San Diego police and then prosecutors were willing to do virtually anything to win a conviction. A 1991 trial ended in a deadlocked jury amid evidence that police planted evidence and committed perjury.

The appellate court decision sent the case back to prosecutors to decide whether to seek a third trial.