Guilty Times 25

Juan Corona's hands convulsively grabbed the defense table as he heard the jury's verdict on the first count: "Guilty." Then, for nearly half an hour, the ritual went on. The judge read out the name of a murdered farm worker, then intoned the jury's verdict: "Guilty of murder in the first degree." Each time -25 times, the number of victims in the worst series of murders in U.S. history the jury responded in unison: "Yes." At the sixth or seventh count. Corona's wife Gloria broke into sobs. When it was over, his ten-year-old daughter collapsed and was rushed to a hospital. Corona himself, who had recently suffered his third heart attack in 19 months of confinement, remained calm and quietly asked his attorney, Richard Hawk, to thank the jury for "their attention to the case." But that, said Hawk, "was something I could not bring myself to do."

Police had first suspected Corona, a Mexican-born farm-labor contractor, when his name appeared on market receipts that were discovered in two of the crude graves that yielded up hacked and bludgeoned bodies near Yuba City, Calif. Two butcher knives, a machete, a pistol, a Levi's jacket and a pair of shorts were all found with bloodstains in various places used by Corona. A key piece of evidence, said the prosecution, was a ledger in his garage with the names of seven of the victims in it. But none of the blood was ever linked to any of the victims, no clear motive was ever established, and the defense argued that since Corona was a labor contractor, he had legitimate reasons to keep the victims' names in his books.

Moreover, the prosecution's preparation included so many mistakes-failure to check for fingerprints, mislabeled evidence-that Judge Richard Patton once exclaimed that it "almost approaches dereliction of duty" (TIME, Nov. 13). One prosecutor even admitted that he had "reasonable doubt," then took it back. Defense Attorney Hawk, who believes Corona is a victim of ethnic prejudice, took a gamble by not presenting any witnesses at all. That appears to have been a fatal error. "It bothered everybody," said one of the jurors. "You can't judge too well unless both sides are presented to you."

At first, though, the jurors voted for acquittal, by 7 to 5, then began to swing the other way. Foreman Ernest Phillips said he himself had "voted different ways." In 15 ballots over six days, the jurors leaned more and more toward conviction (while watching, oddly enough, TV reports on their own deadlock). When they declared themselves stalled at 11 to 1, the judge asked them to try again, and finally the lone holdout gave in. "I finally decided to vote that I was wrong and they were right," said Mrs. Naomi Underwood, 63. But even after voting for a murder conviction, she added: "I am not quite convinced yet. I don't think they had enough evidence."

Judge Patton thanked the jury for "contributing to the administration of justice" in California. Defense Attorney Hawk immediately moved for a new trial.

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