BREAKING NEWS: Salcedo jury deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of acquittal
Second mistrial declared
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Ben Furtado/Auburn Journal
Carol, a juror in the second trial for Veronica Martinez Salcedo, said she wished the jury could?ve reached a decision. A mistrial was declared when the jury told Judge Colleen Nichols they were ?hopelessly deadlocked? in a 9-3 vote in favor of acquittal. Salcedo is accused of shaking a 15-month-old toddler forcefully enough to cause fatal brain injuries.
The jury in the case of a babysitter accused of causing the death of 15-month-old Hannah Juceam told the judge they were “hopelessly deadlocked” Thursday afternoon. The two-month trial ended with the jury deadlocked 9-3 in favor of acquittal of Veronica Martinez Salecdo. Judge Colleen Nichols declared it a mistrial. Salcedo was charged with assault causing the death of a child in the death of Hannah. The prosecution contends that Hannah died as a result of brain injuries caused when Salcedo shook the toddler. The defense argued that a virus caused Hannah’s death. This was the second trial for the former babysitter. The first trial ended in October with the jury deadlocked 10-2 in favor of guilt. Thursday morning the second jury met with Nichols to inform her they were at an impasse. Nichols asked the jury to return to deliberations and try again. She instructed them to meet with her again no later than 3 p.m. the same day. The jury reconvened at around 3 p.m. to inform the court that they still could not make a unanimous decision. When Nichols asked if there were anything further the court could do, the jury foreman said she thought the court had exhausted itself. In the courtroom, Nichols asked if the jury’s final vote had changed earlier. The jury foreman said before the jury was sent back, the vote was 8 to 4. Nichols asked each individual juror if they agreed the jury was hopelessly deadlocked and further deliberations would not bring a verdict. Eleven of the 12 jurors immediately said yes. One juror initially hesitated, but said if everyone else felt further deliberations would not be productive, then she agreed. Upon the jury’s response, Nichols declared a mistrial. She then thanked the jury for their service. “Thank you for your service, attention and dedication,” Nichols said. “I know you’re all exhausted.” Outside of the courtroom Thursday afternoon juror JoAnn, who declined to give her full name, said she voted in favor of acquittal. “The worst part of all was not being able to reach a verdict,” JoAnn said. “We just weren’t able to do it.” She said she thought there was no key evidence that proved Salcedo was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. She said the state “did their best” and she remained open-minded throughout the trial. Another juror said there were simply differences of opinion on the jury. Carol, who also declined to release her full name, said there were several key pieces of evidence but thought the confession tape from the nanny was one of the more important ones. She added that she wished the jury could’ve reached a verdict. “It was very difficult,” Carol said. “I was particularly willing to try (to reach a verdict). I felt obligated to the court to come to a consensus.” Several other jurors approached outside of the courtroom declined to comment. The Salcedo family and their supporters declined to comment. Several members of the group were teary-eyed. Hannah’s parents Scott and Lorena Juceam were not present. Last week Scott Juceam was banned by Nichols from the courtroom for compromising the safety of defense attorney Mary Beth Acton. Scott Juceam was caught photographing and videotaping Acton in the courthouse. Acton said outside of the courtroom that the jury’s end vote was “much better for us.” She said during the second trial the defense was able to present better experts that she said proved Hannah had a blood clot in her brain. She said the clot and misdiagnosis led to Hannah’s death, and not any actions taken by Salcedo. When asked if she would defend Salcedo if a third trial were pursued, Acton emphatically said yes. “I’ll do it again,” Acton said. “I believe she’s innocent.” Acton would not comment on the restraining order she filed June 19 against Scott and Lorena Juceam after he was caught recording her. She also said she is not involved in a civil suit the Juceams filed against Salcedo May 13. District Attorney Brad Fennocchio said Thursday afternoon that the prosecution will wait until next week to announce whether or not it will seek a third trial. “We’re going to make the decision with a little detachment,” Fennocchio said. Prosecutor Jeff Wood said in talking with the jurors, he said it seemed they weighed the evidence differently in the second trial than in the first. Wood said, however, that he was happy with the way the prosecution presented its case. “I think we presented a stronger case this time,” Wood said. “As you can see, there’s no clear consensus on either side.” Wood said he spoke with Scott Juceam for “about 30 seconds” after the decision to inform him of the outcome. “He said, ‘I’ll talk to you later,’ but he did sound disappointed, which is understandable,” Wood said. Both sides will meet again in court on July 3, when the prosecution is expected to announce its decision about seeking another trial. Acton said she will wait until then to comment further on Salcedo’s future. The Journal's Jenifer Gee can be reached at jeniferg@goldcountrymedia.com or post a comment.
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Great job Mary Beth Acton - justice is alive and well in Placer County - with your help!
The jury obviously had 9 idiots on the panel. Try her again and make her go down for the murder of that precious baby.
mamajuju, you know Mary Beth Acton was the DEFENSE attorney, right?!?!?
Idiots? You mean they should look for someone, anyone, to blame for the child's illness and subsequent death? Veronica Salcedo's life has been seriously damaged, because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time in apparently a very dangerous line of work. What has happened to her is a tragedy, horrible beyond words, and the horror of it is that it in fact minimized the tragedy of the loss of the child. Let the woman go, and let the child rest in peace. Pretty hard to do after all this has happened to make an ugly situation out of a plain tragedy.
Sometimes we just have to convict someone, anyone whether or not the evidence for conviction is clear. So we had two "idiots" on the jury of the first trial and nine "idiots" on the jury of the second trial. One has to admit that since this trial took place in Placer County, these "idiots" had a lot of pressure to convict Ms. Salcedo. Considering both juries sat through months of testimony in Placer County, we have to assume the evidence against Ms. Salcedo was a lot weaker than the local media reported. The first hung jury was a surprise. The second jury, with a 9-3 vote for acquittal is even more of a surprise. Does the prosecution retry her over and over again until they get a conviction?
One thing seems pretty certain to me. If Ms. Salcedo is not retried, she will be deported.
Jennifer Gee: Good reporting! But here is a challenge for you. Try to come up with an estimate of the cost of this trial. Both sides had numerous medical experts, and they all had to be paid. It sounds like there were 2 deputy DA's throughout the trial, both making about $100K/yr. I don't know how Acton is getting paid, but if she is court appointed, it should be a matter of public record. Add the cost of the court reporter, the Judge (making about $175K), 2 or 3 bailiffs, the clerk, the DA's investigator, the defense investigator and the cost of 10,000 photocopies of reports and medical records. I'm going to guess it will come in between $500K and $1M. But whatever the number is that you come up with, ask Scott Owens, the DA's official spokesperson how on earth a third retrial could be justified.
Mimmi_1125, yeah right, they were idiots because they don't agree with YOU--as someone who didn't sit through the trial and seriously weigh the evidence, YOU are not qualified to just sit back & casually make the determination of the jurors' mental capacity.
It is unfortunate that Ms. Salcedo was not acquitted. This is a tragic case in which an innocent little girl died. However, we should not conduct human sacrifices just for retribution and there is no doubt in my mind that this is what they are trying to do with this lady.
I don't know about this trial but I did sit in on the first one (spectator) and there was no doubt in my mind that Ms. Salcedo was not guilty.
I truly believe that the DA is trying to hang someone for this tragic death and who better than some illegal alien. I believe that if the DA chooses to try this lady again that there should be public outcry about not only the squandering of taxpayer's money but first and foremost for attempting to destroy this lady's life when they have obviously failed to convince two juries about her guilt.
In my mind there are a lot of unanswered questions and some regard the parents which seem to have anger management problems, specially the father.
Mimmi_1125, Judging by your post I would bet the farm that you are a member of the Jucean family. If so, I feel for your loss but we cannot compromise the judicial system based on personal feelings. Those nine "idiots" that you refer to are members of the community, they sacrificed two months of their lives sitting in the jury box listening to the evidence presented and I am sure that they reviewed the evidence very closely and with an open mind. Obviously the Prosecution was not able to convince them beyond a reasonable doubt about the culpability of Ms. Salcedo, so no, they are not idiots, they are just citizens doing their civic duty to the best of their ability.
MmeYana, well said.
Bigcouchpotato, well said, However, since the "government" has put this lady through hell twice for apparently no other reason that she was a handy illegal I would propose that one of our Senators intervene on her account and allow her to stay in this Country, well, maybe after her experience she may not want to.
The part I don't understand... I would hope the medical folks could come to a conclusion with regard to shaken baby vs a virus.
If a virus, you would think there would be some signs of the virus left.
If shaken baby, you would expect bruising in specific areas of the brain.
No one tested that child for a virus. It was one of the differentials that was never followed through.
The presence of retinal hemorrahging(sp) and brain swelling caused the knee jerk diagnosis of shaken baby. From that point on the differential was ignored. Complacency.
R_T There is also the question in a shaken baby as to how long it takes for the symptoms to manifest themselves. I truly believe that the Prosecution had no case but pressure from the family and public made them pick the person least likely to put up a good defense (obviously that backfired) or who would miss an illegal alien. Believe me, when I first heard about this case I wanted to hang this lady from the nearest lamp post, after hearing the "evidence" I went 180 degrees on the opposite way.
I did not follow the second trial at all so I have no comment on it other than what is obvious, that is that this time they were unable to convince a larger number of jurors.
This case has proved to be an embarrssment to the citizens of Placer County. First the whole issue with local politicians includind Sheriff Bonner and DA Fennochio endorsing Doug Ose, who tried to use this case against McClinttock Then two mistrials costing the taxpayers at least a million dollars, due to overwhelming medical evidence showing the child had a medical anomaly. What next from the illustrious DA's offce? When will these guys wake up and look at the evidence instead of playing politices with the parents.
Is the family being charged with hiring an illegal?
I thought from the beginning this case didn't make sense. People do not go through complete personality changes in 15 minutes or less. This middleaged Hispanic woman had two older kids and I beleive had cared for several young children as a way to earn money while waiting for her papers. I am not a medical person but COMMON SENSE tells me this was a trumped up case. I am glad the jury listened to the facts and not the DA.. The Juceans should be suing Sutter not Salcedo for "wrongful death"
I don't know all the facts of this case, however it blows my mind that people will assume that a person is guilty until proven innocent! Isn't that the polar opposite of how we are supposed to handle these things?
The thought of someone killing an innocent child makes me sick, however the thought of someone who has NOT been proven guilty makes me equally sick!
The courts make no bones about it...guilt MUST be proven beyond ANY REASONABLE DOUBT!
I am strongly in favor of capital punishment when a person is proven guilty of a crime such as this, however what happens to the innocent person who's name and picture are smeared all over the local papers, and news? There lives are changed forever. sad, sad, sad!
I'm not a Juceum, nor do I know them... I live no where near Placer county or Sacramento... I'm somone who uses her brain and common sense. The nanny CONFESSED and even showed them how she shook and harmed this innocent child. Everyone is worrying about her rights, how about the rights of that baby to live a full and prosperous life. No one seems to remember that she can never do that because of the nanny.
The nanny did not confess. You weren't at the trials and were not privy to the interrogation video so
how would you know what was shown, or what was said.
Common sense that comes from incomplete information isn't.
Mimmi_1125,
I started laughing when someone called you on your flimsy disguise. It's so totally obvious that you're Scott. I understand that you're angry as heck, I'd be angry too. LET IT GO. I was on another site and asked the commenters to google your name.
Let me just say that I'd give anything to bring Hannah back, but trying to place blame on someone you know is innocent? Shame on you. I was convinced of Salcedo's innocence when I was you on TV for very first time, begging her to make it right and confess. Why is your wife so silent? When I get to heaven I'm going to ask 2 questions: where is Jimmy Hoffa and why is your wife so silent. Life hands us all back what we deal out. Maybe this is a chance for you to turn your life around. Good luck to you.