Mistrial in man's 2nd murder case

A juror burst into tears of frustration yesterday after a jurywas declared hopelessly deadlocked 11-1 in deliberating murdercharges against a man who would have faced the death penalty ifconvicted of his second murder.

"It's just not fair," the weeping female juror said afterCriminal Court Judge James M. Bailey declared a mistrial after nearly10 hours of deliberation over two days.

An elderly man who joined 10 other jurors in voting to convictadmitted gang member Ervin Daniel left the jury room shaking hishead. "God, I wanted that guy," he said.

Daniel, 19, of 8601 S. Bishop, was accused of killing18-year-old Roger Tate on June 13, 1985 - one day before he killed an18-year-old Little League coach. Daniel was convicted in January ofthe June 14, 1985, killing of Dimitric Grant and would have faced thedeath penalty if convicted of a second murder.

Prosecutors planned to retry Daniel in the Tate death.

Assistant State's Attorney John Brady said Daniel testified inboth cases and used the same defense both times - that he thoughtsomeone with the victim was going for a gun so he fired into thevictim's car, even though he admitted he never saw a gun. In bothinstances, one man was killed and a second injured.

"The cases are carbon copies of each other," Brady said. "Youcould take the names and shuffle them around."

Daniel testified that last June 13, he heard someone call out arival gang slogan and walked up to Tate's car. He said Darren Cooperbent down, as if going for a gun, so he fired one shot at Cooper,hitting him in the elbow, and a second at Tate, fatally striking himin the back.

The holdout juror, an elderly postal worker, said later hethought Daniel should only be convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

"I thought he was scared," the holdout said. "He was just a dumbkid who wanted to be macho."

But another juror, a 28-year-old grocery store manager, said theother jurors did not believe Daniel's contention that he thoughtCooper was going for a gun. They could not convince the holdout, hesaid, though "we talked and talked to him. We were yelling andscreaming. He couldn't keep his train of thought."

Noting evidence that Daniel went out to eat after Tate'skilling, the juror said, "What the hell kind of a guy is this? Foran appetizer, he murders someone."