Jury deadlocks in 5-year-old’s Halloween killing in 2010
A downtown L.A. jury failed to reach a verdict Tuesday in the murder case of a man accused in the fatal shooting of a young boy wearing a Spider-Man costume on Halloween.
After deliberating for three days, the jury deadlocked 10-2, in favor of convicting Leonard Hall Jr., 25, his attorney Carol Ojo said.
Tuesday’s decision marked the second time a jury has failed to reach a unanimous verdict in the case against Hall. In 2013, jurors deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of conviction.
Prosecutors describe Hall and Marcus Denson, 23, as gang members who entered an alley in a rival gang’s territory on Halloween in 2010 and fired gunshots. A bullet struck 5-year-old Aaron Shannon Jr. in the head, prosecutors say. He died at a hospital the next day.
Ojo said she was disappointed that some of the jurors seemed to fixate on the child’s lost life instead of the evidence in the case.
“The issue is do we have the shooter?” she said. “And I don’t believe the evidence shows Hall was the shooter.”
Denson has pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder and one count of voluntary manslaughter. Hall, who could face a third trial in the case, is due back in court Feb. 4.
For more news from the Los Angeles County criminal courts, follow @marisagerber
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