A Sacramento Superior Court jury today convicted Rashad Delrico Mack of first-degree murder for the March 24, 2007, shooting death of Jesse Reiter in the Valley Hi area of south Sacramento.
Mack, 22, faces a term of life in prison without chance of parole as a result of the jury's special circumstance allegation that the murder took place during the course of a robbery.
The verdict came on the 13th day of deliberations in a case where a second jury could not reach a verdict on co-defendant Ulysses Peter Walker, prompting Judge Lloyd G. Connelly to declare a mistrial on April 22.
Deputy District Attorney Dawn Bladet said prosecutors will retry Walker, 21, who is scheduled to be back in court on Wednesday, for further proceedings.
Bladet said the Mack jury, which twice appeared to be on the verge of a mistrial of its own, "worked very hard on a very difficult case and I'm very relieved they were able to see the truth."
She characterized the Walker jury's mistrial as "a frustrating outcome."
Michael Nelson, the attorney who represented Walker, could not be reached earlier today.
Mack's lawyer, Pete Harned, said he was "disappointed" with the verdict and that he thought the prosecution did "not quite establish it's case."
According to trial testimony, Reiter, 36, and a friend had gone bar hopping in Woodland and wound up at a Sacramento strip club on Richards Boulevard in the early-morning hours of March 24, 2007, when they encountered Walker.
Michael Boyd, the man who accompanied Reiter, testified that he and the victim followed Walker to the Valley Hi area in south Sacramento where they had hoped to meet up with some strippers. Instead, Boyd testified, while they were parked on Valley Lark Drive and were waiting for their hook-up, a man he identified as Walker stole the keys out of his car while Reiter got out of the car and engaged the gunman whom prosecutors identified as Mack.
A single shotgun blast to Reiter's thigh hit him in the femoral artery, and he died later at UC Davis Medical Center due to loss of blood,.
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Mack, 22, faces a term of life in prison without chance of parole as a result of the jury's special circumstance allegation that the murder took place during the course of a robbery.
The verdict came on the 13th day of deliberations in a case where a second jury could not reach a verdict on co-defendant Ulysses Peter Walker, prompting Judge Lloyd G. Connelly to declare a mistrial on April 22.
Deputy District Attorney Dawn Bladet said prosecutors will retry Walker, 21, who is scheduled to be back in court on Wednesday, for further proceedings.
Bladet said the Mack jury, which twice appeared to be on the verge of a mistrial of its own, "worked very hard on a very difficult case and I'm very relieved they were able to see the truth."
She characterized the Walker jury's mistrial as "a frustrating outcome."
Michael Nelson, the attorney who represented Walker, could not be reached earlier today.
Mack's lawyer, Pete Harned, said he was "disappointed" with the verdict and that he thought the prosecution did "not quite establish it's case."
According to trial testimony, Reiter, 36, and a friend had gone bar hopping in Woodland and wound up at a Sacramento strip club on Richards Boulevard in the early-morning hours of March 24, 2007, when they encountered Walker.
Michael Boyd, the man who accompanied Reiter, testified that he and the victim followed Walker to the Valley Hi area in south Sacramento where they had hoped to meet up with some strippers. Instead, Boyd testified, while they were parked on Valley Lark Drive and were waiting for their hook-up, a man he identified as Walker stole the keys out of his car while Reiter got out of the car and engaged the gunman whom prosecutors identified as Mack.
A single shotgun blast to Reiter's thigh hit him in the femoral artery, and he died later at UC Davis Medical Center due to loss of blood,.
More...