San Jose: 2 found guilty of killing passer-by with baseball bat

By Tracey Kaplan

Posted: 03/11/2010 06:40:03 PM PST
Updated: 03/11/2010 10:25:25 PM PST

With five sheriff's deputies in the courtroom providing extra security, the verdict in the trial of two young men accused of fatally beating a man in San Jose with a baseball bat was announced Thursday to a tense crowd.

The defendants — Eddie Sample and Daniel Miller, both 20 — barely reacted, but two of their supporters in the courtroom made their feelings known after the clerk's voice rang out:

"Guilty" — and not just of murder, but of first-degree murder — which carries 25 years to life, 10 years more than second-degree.

The courtroom was suddenly lit by an angry expletive, and as the jurors were leaving a man shouted, "How the hell will you people sleep at night?"

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," yelled another.

The men were escorted out of the courtroom by deputies and they immediately left the building. Because of the tension, deputies also accompanied jurors out a rear exit to ensure their safety.

Tensions were high not only because the defendants were teens at the time of the crime four years ago, but also because after the baseball bat attack, the disoriented victim, Jorge Trujillo, had a violent run-in with police that defense attorneys argued contributed to his death.

The bat attack unfolded about 7:45 p.m. on Jan. 25, 2006, on 22nd Street. An eyewitness testified he saw Miller and Sample crouched down behind a trailer before springing up and attacking Trujillo, 34, who'd

just purchased beer and was heading to a friend's to watch TV.

Miller blocked Trujillo's path on a bike while Sample sneaked up from behind and bashed the hapless man on the head with a baseball bat, the witness testified.

Bloodstained and disoriented, Trujillo wandered for more than a mile until police were called by worried homeowners. They told a 911 operator he might have a weapon. The officers subdued Trujillo with 21 stun gun zaps and with baton strikes to his leg, arm and back.

Before the trial, the case appeared to be one made more complicated by the question of what role, if any, police may have played in Trujillo's death.

But prosecutor Daniel Carr, no relation to District Attorney Dolores Carr, argued that the evidence, including autopsy pictures, showed that each of the five blows from the bat alone was sufficient to kill Trujillo.

After Thursday's court hearing, Sample's relatives said they still blame police for Trujillo's death.

"This is so wrong," said Sample's mother, Kerrie Sample. "Police are the ones who did this to him and they know it. My dad was a police officer in Los Altos, and if he weren't dead, they would have found some other poor kids to put it on."

But Trujillo's family praised the jury. No sentencing hearing was set.

"They were fair and they did the job," said Maria Trujillo, the victim's sister-in-law. "Of course, this is not going to make up for the pain of losing him."

The jury of eight men and four women deliberated for less than four days. One of the defense attorneys, who spoke to a juror after the trial, said the jury agreed fairly early that the young men were guilty. The only stumbling point was whether they were "lying in wait," which would render them guilty of first-degree murder.

Asked by the jury about the issue, Superior Court Judge Jerome E. Brock ruled that the panel could review a 1993 appellate court decision that found lying in wait does not require the intent to murder the victim, but rather, "the intent to watch and wait for the purpose of gaining advantage and taking the victim unawares in order to facilitate the act which constitutes murder."

An hour after reviewing the opinion, the jury reached a verdict.

From: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_14659104?source=most_viewed