VA Case Jury Near Verdict?

VA Case Jury Near Verdict?

By John Barton

STAFF REPORTER

DETROIT — Jurors deliberating the poisoning charges against former Ann Arbor VA Hospital nurses Leonora Perez and Filipina Narciso may reach a verdict late in the week, The News learned Monday.

Reports indicate the panel appears to be working its way through the testimony involving the third of four men who were poisoned as they lay in their hospital beds on Aug. 15, 1975. The four counts are the last crimes charged in the eight-count indictment handed down against Perez and Narciso.

The News has learned the panel, which ended a record 13 days and 86 hours of deliberation late Monday, appears to have put off discussion of a conspiracy count until the group sifted through all the other counts in chronological order.

The nine women and three men must render 10 separate verdicts after I evaluating three-months of testimony in the complex and controversial trial of the two Filipina nurses on charges they used a paralyzing drug to poison hospitalized veterans during the summer of 1975.

"It would be my guess that they will finish up the events of August 15th then move right into the conspiracy count where it shouldn’t take them long to decide, depending on whether they have been voting as they go along,” a source explained.

"That would mean,” he continued, "we could have a verdict in the next couple of days. But, believe me, that is just a guess and not a guarantee.''

Reports are divided on whether the jurors have voted on each count as they methodically worked their way through the indictment.

One source said, “It seems only logical that they vote as they go along.” But other sources said the panelists may barely have gotten beyond the arguing stage and are reviewing all available testimony on each charge. The panel will not take a vote until all the charges have been debated, those sources say.

It is difficult to accurately gauge the jury’s progress because presiding Judge Philip Pratt has kept secret communications with the jury. Only Pratt's clerks and attorneys for each side are advised when the panel asks to examine a specific piece of evidence or requests to review any of the 6,500 pages of witness testimony.

So far, the jury has appeared only once in open court. That was last week when they asked Pratt to clarify his instructions on the law regarding first-degree or premeditated murder.

Narciso, 31, of Ypsilanti, is accused of using the paralyzing drug Pavulon to murder one man and poison four others. Perez, 33, of Ann Arbor, is charged with poisoning three patients with infections of Pavulon.

Both women remain at an undisclosed downtown Detroit hotel where they await the verdict with friends, family and other supporters.

Meanwhile, a guessing-game continues as to whether the VA deliberations have set a national record for a criminal trial. Reference material and libraries throughout the country have been scoured without success.

The 86 hours the panel has already spent locked in the jury room have more than doubled the old record for a jury in Detroit's federal court district. The previous record was 32 hours spent deliberating a 1972 case.

According to available records, the longest deliberation session in recent history was the military court martial in 1971 of Lt. William Galley for the so-called My Lai massacre.

In that case, six military officers deliberated for 13 days and consumed nearly 80 hours struggling to reach a 2/3 majority opinion.