CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SANTA ANA : Jurors Deadlock on Sanity Phase

Jurors in Santa Ana agreed that a deaf man killed his estranged girlfriend and her mother, but they could not agree whether he was insane when he did it. After learning the panel was hopelessly deadlocked in the sanity portion of the trial of Ronald James Blaney Jr., Santa Ana Superior Court Judge Leonard H. McBride declared a mistrial. Two weeks ago, the same jury convicted Blaney, 32, of two counts of first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of Priscilla Vinci, 33, and her 65-year-old mother, Josephine Vinci. The convictions will stand, but a new jury must be picked to decide the sanity issue.