Highway murder mistrial

One by one, each juror by turn said they would be unmoved by further explanation, deliberations, breaks from deliberations or evidence. In a comparison of votes from the first day up to the last ballot taken yesterday morning, the five-man, seven-woman jury showed there was little budging.

On murder, jurors began 9 to 4 initially and only changed to 10-2 yesterday for Sedeno. On the same charge, jurors stayed split 6-6. On the other counts, the vote averaged 9-3.

In speaking with jurors afterward, prosecutor Sean Gallagher said the split leaned toward guilt on first-degree murder. Multiple jurors sent out notes asking if a juror could be removed for refusing to deliberate any further. Earlier in the process, two female jurors reportedly came close to a confrontation and threatened each other.

"I have never seen deliberations this contentious with jurors behaving this aggressively and outrageously with repeated threats," Gallagher said.

Earlier this week, Karen Gardner, the victim's mother, said she felt the jury's notes showed they did not comprehend the laws regarding murder and aiding and abetting.

The mistrial declaration does not free Navarro and Sedeno. Instead, both return to court May 31 to begin picking the jury for a new trial on all but the two charges against Sedeno in which verdicts were reached. On Monday, jurors found Sedeno guilty of recklessly evading police officers during a high-speed chase prior to the men's arrest. The jury also acquitted Sedeno of being a felon in possession of a firearm. They could not agree on one count of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder. Navarro and Sedeno remain in custody on no-bail status while awaiting the new trial.

Gallagher, encouraged by jury feedback, believes the prosecution case is still strong and is ready to try it again.

"It's just such an outrageous crime with such dangerous defendants that there is nothing that will make us not go," he said.

Gardner, 22, died Jan. 12, 2003 from a single shot to the back of the head. He was sleeping in the passenger seat of a friend's car as they and two others in another vehicle drove home from San Jose. On Interstate 380, they encountered a Chevrolet Tahoe driven by Sedeno and carrying Navarro and Richard Sedillo. According to Gallagher, Gardner's driver honked as he tried to pass the weaving SUV which sparked a hail of bullets. One passed through the passenger headrest into Gardner. Daly City police arrested the defendants and Sedillo hours later after spotting them at a Denny's restaurant and chasing them throughout the Bay Area into San Francisco.

Sedillo was released after authorities decided he was not involved in the shooting. No weapons were ever recovered but 13 bullet casings were picked up from the freeway and vehicle.

The trial, initially presented as a tragic, random case of road rage, took an odd twist when the conflicting testimony of each side's key witness was offered to jurors. Sedillo, himself a felon, took the stand for the prosecution. Gallagher admitted Sedillo was an unsavory character but said that should not take away from the truth of his testimony which placed guns in both defendants' hands but not his own.

Sedeno's defense attorney Mara Feiger offered Lois Buenaflor, a diagnosed schizophrenic who also claimed to be a passenger in the Tahoe. Feiger admitted Buenaflor was far from an ideal witness but asked jurors to believe her tale of watching the shooting and later having Sedillo aim a similar gun at her forehead.

Defense attorney Myra Weiher, representing Navarro, balked at the alleged eyewitness accounts of both Sedillo and Buenaflor. She unsuccessfully tried to get a separate trial for Navarro the first time and will push for a severance again. Regardless, she expects to launch a very similar case the second time around.

"I don't think their case is going to be any better or different," she said.

During the trial and deliberations, Navarro has remained strong and knows he did nothing wrong, said his mother, Yvonne Pacheco, and brother, Salva Navarro.

He simply took a ride home from a party - a move that could be made by anybody, Navarro said.

The families of both defendants and Gardner attended the trial daily. Pacheco said she is ready to sit through another to free her son. Gardner has echoed similar sentiments about enduring the process again.

Navarro's family believes he is caught up in an "adversarial system" in which Gallagher refuses to admit he is prosecuting the wrong person. It isn't fair to her son or to the victim's family, Pacheco said.

"Karen Gardner deserves to know the truth," Pacheco said.

Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 104. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.