A Superior Court judge has refused to grant a new trial to a man convicted of manslaughter in a 2021 Tenderloin shooting, despite affidavits from four jurors who now say they should not have voted for that verdict.
In a Nov. 13 ruling, Judge Michael McNaughton concluded that the evidence was not strong enough to suggest juror misconduct.
Four members of the jury originally submitted documents saying the deliberations were tainted by confusing jury instructions and several members of the panel saying they just wanted to be done and refusing to discuss a verdict of involuntary manslaughter.
One juror also argued that a hung jury would force the defendant, Jhacorey Wyatt, to spend more time in jail awaiting a new trial and that would be unfair; jurors by law are not supposed to consider potential sentencing or other punishment.
Another juror added a declaration before the November 13 hearing.
But the judge dismissed those concerns, in part on technical terms related to the Evidence Code, and in part because, he argued, even if those juror statements are true and admissible, they weren’t enough to overturn the verdict.
“There is insufficient evidence that any jury failed to deliberate. The declarations suggest that some jurors did not openly express their views on every issue. But this does not rise to the level of ‘failure to deliberate’ that would warrant a new trial.”
Wyatt is now going to be sentenced for voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon on Dec. 10, in Department 21 at the Hall of Justice.
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Wyatt has already been incarcerated for four years awaiting trial. If he’d been convicted of involuntary manslaughter—because he fired a gun in self-defense, believing he was going to be shot or stabbed—the maximum sentence would have been four years, and he would have been released.
The story, like a lot of criminal cases, is complex. Wyatt grew up in very difficult circumstances, the son of a drug addict who, along with his siblings, had to learn at a very early age to fend for himself.
And yet, he managed to survive, have a child of his own, and provide emotional support for his brothers and sisters.
He was in the Tenderloin on the day of the shooting to try to rescue his brother, who was also an addict, and he brought a gun because, he testified, he believed that he would be confronting violent people and his life might be in danger.
One of the shots he fired, at a person he testified had made him fear for his life, went wild and killed a bystander.
If he had reason to believe he was in danger, he had a right to self-defense. On juror noted: “there were some jurors who seemed not to understand what a ‘reasonable’ person entailed, and they used a very narrow definition of what they believed they personally would have done in Mr. Wyatt’s situation … this narrow view was infused with their racial and economic bias.”
Under state law, voluntary manslaughter can carry a sentence of three to 11 years—which means the judge could allow Wyatt to go back to his family, or serve a fairly further term—or could put him in state prison for another seven years. It also depends on how the judge handles the assault case.
In a moving video, the Public Defenders Office makes the case for his release:
The hearing is open to the public, although courtroom capacity is limited.
