WOODLAND — The man who agreed to help an ailing Davis resident end his life is guilty of attempted murder, a Yolo County jury ruled Wednesday during its fourth day of deliberations.
But the same panel that convicted James Elron Mings declared itself hopelessly deadlocked on a special finding alleging that the crime was performed willfully, with determination and premeditation, resulting in a mistrial on the count and a vow by the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office to retry that part of the case.
For Mings, a decision on that finding means the difference between an indeterminate prison sentence of seven years to life if a jury finds the premeditation allegation true, as opposed to a determinate term of five, seven or nine years if they decide that it is not.
The attempted murder verdict marked something of a compromise in the case, with prosecutors seeking a first-degree murder conviction for the choking and gagging death of Kevin Gerard Seery, and the defense arguing for the lesser offense of attempted voluntary manslaughter. The jury rejected both first- and second-degree murder rulings.
“Although we respect the jury’s verdict, we are, of course, very disappointed,” Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Cabral said on behalf of prosecuting attorney Martha Holzapfel.
Deputy Public Defender Dan Hutchinson, Mings’ attorney, declined to comment on the jury’s decision.
Jury foreman James Ryan said the panel cast a total of five votes on the premeditation issue, coming as close as 10-2 in favor of finding the allegation true before deciding they could go no further. At one point Wednesday, the jury sent Judge Timothy Fall a note requesting additional instruction on the legal meaning of the word “deliberately.”
“The whole downfall of the special finding was just the definition,” said Ryan, a Woodland resident. Two jurors insisted Mings hadn’t thought his actions through, “and we couldn’t budge them after four hours of (deliberating) only that subject.”
Several other jurors told Hutchinson that while they believed Mings should serve some time in prison, it shouldn’t be a lengthy sentence, as they believe Mings is unlikely to harm anyone else.
Mings was arrested on the night of Oct. 1, 2011, when he walked into the Davis Police Department and confessed to choking the 42-year-old Seery earlier that day at the College Square Apartments on J Street, then stuffing gauze into his mouth in an attempt to block his airway.
Seery suffered from multiple ailments, including diabetes, pancreatitis and hepatitis, and asked Mings to help him end his life just days after befriending him, Mings told a police detective at the time. Holzapfel argued at trial that Mings had sufficient opportunity to weigh the consequences of his actions before deciding to hasten Seery’s death.
But Hutchinson offered a different theory, claiming Mings only managed to render Seery unconscious, and that it was a third person in Seery’s apartment — a homeless man named Thomas McDermott — who fatally gagged Seery with antibacterial wipes and part of a tube sock while Mings was in another room.
Hutchinson also contended that McDermott and Seery colluded to provoke Mings into the assisted suicide by appealing to his emotions and causing him to act in a state of passion.
Mings testified last week that he came to that realization after learning that the sock and wipes had been pulled from deep within Seery’s throat during the dead man’s autopsy. He said he was unaware that anything but gauze had been placed into Seery’s mouth.
Hutchinson said McDermott told others about the sock before the autopsy had even occurred, one of several slip-ups he said were overlooked by Davis police.
“I believe I was set up,” Mings said during his two days on the witness stand.
“We all believe (McDermott) had a role” in Seery’s death, said Ryan, the jury foreman. But because he never appeared as a witness during the two-week trial, “he was the invisible presence in the background.”
The case is due back in court Wednesday, when Holzapfel is slated to confirm whether her office will retry Mings on the premeditation finding. Mings remains in custody at the Yolo County Jail.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene