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Brawl juror misled, teen's attorney saysBy CHASE SQUIRES
© St. Petersburg Times, DADE CITY -- The attorney representing a teenager convicted last month of second-degree murder in a neighborhood brawl demanded a new trial Wednesday, claiming one juror said he was misled by other jurors. Circuit Judge Maynard Swanson ruled that whatever happened in the jury room was out of his purview. All of the jurors were questioned about whether they agreed with the verdict convicting Harvey Leroy Jones, 19. If jurors thought they had been misled, that was the time to speak out. Elizabeth Hittos said she will appeal Swanson's decision. According to Hittos, juror Aron Herrold approached her in the parking lot after Jones' Oct. 18 conviction. The juror told her the other jurors in the jury room said he could not opt to convict the teen on a charge lesser than second-degree murder. Swanson said he did not need to hear from Herrold. But later, in a telephone interview, Herrold said that under the law it appeared Jones had committed some type of crime, but he did not think a second-degree murder conviction was warranted. He said he favored something lesser, such as battery or manslaughter. The judge did instruct the jury at the end of the trial that members could consider manslaughter among lesser crimes. After 21/2 hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Jones of second-degree murder in the death of 44-year-old Loy Lee Hardwick in an April 26, 2000, scuffle that started on the street in front of Hardwick's Zephyrhills home. Witnesses testified Hardwick hit Jones with a metal pole, but Jones took the pole and hit Hardwick on the head with it. Hardwick died from the blow. Prosecutor Manny Garcia argued that the state Supreme Court has already ruled in another case that confusion in the jury room does not warrant a new trial. In her bid for a new trial Wednesday, Hittos also claimed the judge should have let a police officer testify to a conversation he had with a prosecutor before arrests were made and that photographs of the crime scene were taken well after the incident and didn't provide jurors with an accurate picture of what the area looked like at the time. She said she will appeal Swanson's decision to deny a new trial. Sentencing for Jones is set for Dec. 7. He could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison, although attorneys say that with his clean record the sentence likely will be less.
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