Slaying Jury Finds Meier Guilty on 3 More Charges

Calling Torran Lee Meier’s life a psychological nightmare, jurors in the Canoga Park teen-ager’s murder trial concluded deliberations Tuesday by finding Meier guilty of three manslaughter-related charges for attacks on his mother and half brother.

Jurors, who earlier rejected the prosecutor’s request for convictions on murder and attempted-murder charges, said they believed that Meier, 17, was under extreme mental duress after a lifetime of abuse by his mother, who constantly berated her son and was sexually provocative in his presence.

The jurors said the youth acted in a fit of rage rather than in a deliberate manner when he strangled his mother, Shirley A. Rizk, 34, put her body in a car, set the vehicle afire, then pushed it over a cliff in Malibu.

Tormented Since Birth

Describing the torment Meier experienced almost since birth, one juror said, “We were surprised he didn’t commit suicide.”

Meier was charged with the murder of his mother, the attempted murder of his half brother and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder--one relating to each victim.

He was convicted Tuesday of the reduced charges of attempted voluntary manslaughter and conspiracy to commit voluntary manslaughter on his half brother, Rory Rizk, 8, who was in the car that was pushed over the cliff, but was not seriously injured.

The Van Nuys Superior Court jury also found Meier guilty of conspiracy to commit voluntary manslaughter in the death of his mother. The jury on Monday convicted Meier of a separate charge of voluntary manslaughter in her death.

7 Weeks of Testimony

Meier, dressed in slacks and a pullover, sat impassively as the verdicts were read by the court clerk.

The verdicts brought to an end the lengthy trial in Van Nuys Superior Court, which included seven weeks of testimony and three weeks of deliberations. On two occasions, the jury foreman had expressed doubts that the panel could reach unanimous votes on all four counts relating to the October incident.

If he had been convicted of the more serious charges, Meier would have faced a possible sentence of 25 years to life in state prison. He now faces a maximum of 13 years, Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward G. Feldman said.

However, because Meier was a juvenile at the time of the slaying, Judge George Xanthos could elect to send him to the California Youth Authority. If Meier is sentenced to the CYA, officials there can release him whenever they feel he has been rehabilitated, and they are required by state law to free him before his 25th birthday.

No date was set for sentencing.

Jurors said after the verdict that they were swayed by the testimony of 22 defense witnesses, including Shirley Rizk’s own mother, who depicted Rizk as an abusive and demanding woman who constantly screamed at her son.

“I just felt that this was a man who, during the last year, was going through a psychological nightmare,” juror Linda Gunn of Woodland Hills said.

Shirley Rizk’s mother, Joyce Van Hove of Sylmar, supported Meier throughout the trial and said Tuesday that she continues to believe in his innocence.

“I do not believe now, nor have I ever believed, that Torry Lee is a menace to society,” Van Hove said.

Recruited 2 Friends

Witnesses said that Meier recruited two friends to help him kill his mother and that, when Rory wandered in on the slaying, the three decided that he, too, must be killed.

They tried first to feed Rory a poisoned sandwich, and, when that effort failed, bound his hands and placed him next to his mother’s body in the car, according to testimony. Rory testified that he freed his hands, rolled down an electric window, then climbed out to safety.

Jurors said they never considered a complete acquittal on the charges relating to Shirley Rizk but disagreed on what degree of crime was committed. However, several jurors started out favoring a not-guilty verdict on the counts concerning Rory Rizk, believing that Meier did not intend to kill his brother.

One piece of evidence that proved to be a stumbling block for jurors was the fact that the car keys were found, not in the ignition switch, but in Shirley Rizk’s lap. That made it difficult to explain how Rory Rizk could have rolled down the power window, jurors said.

Ploy to Fool Accomplices

Deputy Public Defender James H. Barnes argued to the jury that Meier drove the car down the cliff and positioned it close to the highway, then pushed his half brother out the window to safety before setting the car afire. That was done, Barnes suggested, to fool Meier’s two accomplices into thinking that he had killed the only witness against them.

The prosecution argued that Rory, in fact, was able to open the window because the car was rigged so that the power remained on even after they key was pulled out.

Feldman said his case was weakened by a ruling that the jury could not hear a taped statement that Meier gave to police after his arrest. Judge Xanthos ruled the statement inadmissible because Meier was wrongly not allowed to talk to his grandmother before the interrogation.

On the tape, played at a preliminary hearing, Meier admitted that he lured his mother into a bedroom and that he and his two friends jumped her from behind and took turns strangling her for 15 to 20 minutes. In addition, he said the trio wanted to kill Rory.

“Society would rather have a miscarriage of justice . . . ,” Feldman said, referring to the verdict, “rather than have a teen-ager’s request to speak to his grandmother go unheeded.”

Meier’s two accused accomplices, Richard A. Parker, 24, of Antelope Valley, and Matthew A. Jay, 18, of Woodland Hills, are scheduled to go to trial on murder and three other charges Aug. 1 in Van Nuys Superior Court.