Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Jury deadlocked in poker player’s murder trial

A man charged with killing a fellow Canadian poker player in a hotel room on the Strip in 1997 was dealt a new trial by a deadlocked jury Monday, a lack of decision the prosecutor blamed on "this CSI world we now live in.'

The jury's foreman told District Judge Michael Cherry, "We are deadlocked at eight to four, and I don't believe we will change," and that prompted Cherry to declare a mistrial.

The defendant, 31-year-old Greg Chao, a Canadian citizen and poker player, was charged with robbery with use of a deadly weapon and murder with use of a deadly weapon for the killing of 53-year-old land developer Donald Idiens at the Imperial Palace on Dec. 8, 1997.

After the foreman issued his statement, Cherry asked the other 11 jurors to raise their hands if they felt further deliberation would result in breaking the deadlock. No hands were raised.

Tim O'Brien, Chao's defense lawyer, said he would have liked to have seen the jury "deliberate the remainder of the day if not another full day" before calling it a deadlock.

"That just tells me there was sufficient reasonable doubt in the case," O'Brien said. "It's hard to take (the deadlock) because we've lost so much time already."

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Schwartz wouldn't comment on the deadlock saying, "If you have nothing good to say about anyone, don't say it."

But Schwartz did offer an opinion as to why four people believed Chao was not guilty.

"There were no witnesses to the killing, and in the view of this CSI world we now live in, I think some of the jurors were waiting for some magical moment to change that fact," Schwartz said. "If they took their time with the evidence, the only conclusion is that he killed someone."

After excusing Chao from the courtroom, Cherry asked the jury foreman and the other jurors to explain why they felt further deliberations would not alter the deadlock.

The foreman said, "There were four people that didn't believe the totality of the evidence proved the case against the defendant. There were four people that felt very, very strongly and argued as such. We tried to apply the legal instructions against the evidence, but failed to act unanimously."

The key evidence presented in the case was that DNA testing had established that blood found on the walls, carpet, furniture and bathroom tile in Greg Chao's hotel room was Idiens'.

Idiens was found dead in a stairwell at the hotel wearing nothing but his underwear and socks, with a plastic bag covering his head.

One of the four jurors who was arguing for a not-guilty verdict said he would have a liked a clearer jury instruction to determine "what is evidence and what is conjecture and speculation."

The same juror said a major part of his and the other three jurors' votes for guilty was "the experience we bring based on the judgment of a reasonable person. The others put more weight on the evidence."

The juror said the biggest question he and others who felt Chao was not guilty had was about the time of death. He said detectives failed to fully examine what stage of rigor mortis Idiens' body was in when police arrived.

Rigor mortis, however, is not something that can determine the exact time of death, but instead provides a window of four to six hours. Prosecutors said the killing happened during an hour window in which Imperial Palace video cameras show Idiens entering the casino and Chao leaving roughly an hour later.

One piece of information the jurors didn't get to hear was that Chao had been on probation for an extortion conviction in Canada when he was arrested in June 2004 in connection with the Idiens case.

For the eight people who voted guilty, the information about Chao's conviction made them visibly upset, with several saying they felt the four jurors who voted not guilty would have changed their minds if they knew about Chao's criminal history.

District Judge Nancy Saitta ruled against allowing prosecutors to introduce the information into the trial. Saitta had presided over the three-week trial until Monday. Cherry said he filled in for her because she had legislative duties to perform in Carson City and was also very ill.

One woman juror, who voted to find Chao guilty, said the case came down to the law and "the people who thought he (Chao) was not guilty did so but for the sake of the law."

"They (the four jurors who voted not guilty) argued passionately about their beliefs, but let their passion get the better of them and overlooked the law and facts of the case," the woman said.

Earlier on Monday the jury's foreman told Cherry the jury was currently at seven-to-five, but under Cherry's instructions would not say whether the jury was leaning toward a guilty or not-guilty verdict.

Cherry asked the foreman and the rest of the jury if they felt further deliberation could break the deadlock, and the foreman said he thought they should continue. Another member of the jury said, "We'll give it a shot."

That "shot," however, lasted for only another two hours. Only one juror's mind was changed in favor of a guilty verdict.

Cherry scheduled a June 8 hearing to schedule the re-trial, which Schwartz said probably won't take place for at least a year.

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