Jurors Deadlock on Killer’s Penalty

A San Fernando jury deadlocked Thursday on whether a man who has served a decade on San Quentin State Prison’s death row should be executed for a fatal 1986 stabbing in Pacoima.

Without a jury decision, prosecutors will have to decide whether to try Shawn Hill, 42, a fourth time for the Aug. 25, 1986, killing of Stuart Margetts, 30.

Hill’s 1988 murder conviction was overturned a decade later by the state Supreme Court for prosecutorial misconduct. A second trial ended earlier this year with a hung jury.

In Hill’s third trial, jurors on Dec. 13 found him guilty of first-degree murder with the special circumstances of lying in wait and robbery. But on Thursday they were unable to reach a unanimous decision on whether Hill should be sentenced to death.

The jury voted 9 to 3 in favor of the death penalty after deliberating for five days. If prosecutors decide against retrying the case, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen could sentence Hill to life in prison without parole.

A hearing is set for Jan. 24.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Richman said his office will decide within a few weeks whether to retry the case. If a new trial is sought, the jury would decide only the penalty; the guilty verdict would stand, he said.

Prosecutors said Hill tried to sell Margetts wax covered with baking soda, claiming it was cocaine. When Margetts refused to buy it, Hill demanded money, then stabbed Margetts in the chest for being too slow to comply, prosecutors said.

Two days later, Hill and two other men robbed and stabbed Ronald Johnson, then 19, in the chest, prosecutors said.

Johnson testified against Hill last month for the third time.

Throughout the trials, Hill has maintained his innocence. During the latest trial, Hill did not offer any mitigating evidence during the penalty phase. His attorney, Christopher C. Chaney, said jurors told him they would have liked to have heard more about the defendant’s background.

Hill’s case was returned to Los Angeles three years ago, after the state Supreme Court, in a rare move, overturned Hill’s conviction, finding “outrageous and pervasive misconduct” by Deputy Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Rosalie Morton, who retired a year later.

The justices found that Morton repeatedly misstated and mischaracterized evidence, told the jury of information that was not in evidence, misstated the law, propounded “outright falsehoods” and made “sarcastic and critical comments demeaning” Hill’s lawyer during the trial.

The Supreme Court referred the matter to the State Bar of California for possible discipline, but no action was taken against Morton, a bar spokesman said Thursday.