Jury Asked to Spare the Life of Convicted Killer

Saying “truth is in the details,” a defense attorney Thursday attacked the case against Kenneth Gay and implored jurors to spare the life of the convicted murderer by suggesting that he is an innocent man.

“You cannot morally vote for death in this case,” said Deputy Public Defender Ken Lezin, in his closing argument in Gay’s penalty-phase retrial, contending that there is “lingering doubt” about Gay’s guilt in the 1983 slaying of Los Angeles Police Officer Paul Verna.

“If justice is to be done, the truth must be known,” Lezin said in a San Fernando courtroom packed with uniformed police officers, including LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks.

Gay, 42, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1985 and sentenced to death. In 1998, the California Supreme Court left his guilty verdict intact, but overturned his sentence on the grounds that his lawyer at the time was incompetent.

Because Gay’s guilt has already been decided, the only issue before the jury of six women and six men is whether to sentence him to death or to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors say that Gay and a fellow passenger, Raynard Cummings, both shot at Verna after the motor officer stopped their car because the ex-convicts, implicated in a string of robberies, wanted to avoid arrest. Cummings fired first and then passed the gun to Gay, who then shot Verna five more times at close range, prosecutors said. Cummings was also convicted of first-degree murder and is on death row.

On Thursday, Lezin recounted what he called inconsistencies in the testimony of several witnesses to Verna’s shooting.

One said the shooter was a “dark or medium-complected black man,” while others described Gay as “Caucasian” or a “white man,” Lezin said.

One witness who identified Gay as the shooter said the gunman wore a burgundy short-sleeved shirt.

“Who was wearing a burgundy short-sleeved shirt? Raynard Cummings,” Lezin said, adding: “It’s very, very different from a long-sleeved white shirt” that Gay had been wearing. “The truth is in the details.”

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During a break, Chief Parks hugged the slain officer’s widow, Sandy Verna. “We’re here to support the family,” said Parks, who was accompanied by his wife, Bobbie.

Gay’s wife, Janice, said she was frustrated by how Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge L. Jeffrey Wiatt has excluded evidence that suggests Cummings fired all the shots. Because the evidence challenged the original jury verdict that Gay used a firearm, Wiatt said the evidence was irrelevant.