Jury Deadlocks Over Penalty for Slaying

The jury that convicted a former Los Angeles police officer of the murder of a Northridge businessman deadlocked Tuesday over a possible death sentence, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial in the penalty phase of the trial.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp dismissed the jury on its fourth day of deliberations after jurors said they could not agree on whether Richard Herman Ford should be sentenced to die or spend life in prison without possibility of parole for the 1983 contract killing.

The jury’s foreman told Schempp the panel had been deadlocked 11-1 since deliberations began and had exhausted hope of reaching agreement.

The foreman did not say whether the majority favored the death penalty or the life sentence, and Schempp admonished jurors not to talk about the matter until a separate jury decides the punishment of Ford’s co-defendant, former Los Angeles Police Officer Robert Von Villas.

Ford, 48, of Northridge, and Von Villas, 44, of Simi Valley, were convicted by separate juries of first-degree murder and conspiracy in the case of Thomas Weed, who disappeared in February, 1983, and has never been found. Prosecutors said the two officers murdered him and buried the body in the desert in exchange for $20,000 from Weed’s former wife, Janie E. Ogilvie. She was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for her part in the conspiracy.

The penalty phase of Von Villas’trial began earlier Tuesday with Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert O’Neill asking jurors to sentence Von Villas to death for Weed’s killing. O’Neill presented witnesses who testified that the two officers burglarized a Northridge jewelry store in 1982 and attempted to kill an exotic dancer in 1983 to collect on her insurance policy.

Schempp scheduled a Dec. 23 hearing on whether a new jury should be impaneled to retry the penalty phase of Ford’s trial. Essentially, that would entail a full rehearing of the guilt phase of the trial since the jury would have to be told of the evidence against him, officials said. The conviction, however, would stand.

If the district attorney’s office decides not to seek a new trial, Schempp would have the option of sentencing Ford to life in prison with or without the possibility of parole, Assistant Dist. Atty. Curt Livesay said.

Some jurors cried on several occasions during the two-week long penalty phase of the trial, which included testimony that Ford came from a broken home, was sexually molested by his mother at the age of 8 and suffered from delayed-stress syndrome from serving two tours of duty with the U.S. Army in Vietnam.

The conviction was the second this year for Von Villas and Ford. Both were sentenced in March to 35 years to life in prison for attempting to kill Granada Hills exotic dancer Joan Loguercio in 1983 to collect a $100,000 life insurance policy and for the 1982 Northridge jewelry store robbery.