San Diego News Network
By Kelly Wheeler
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Judge Kenneth So took the action after being told that the jurors were deadlocked 8-4 or 7-5 in favor of acquitting 23-year-old Shane Pilson of first- degree murder. A status conference was set for Monday.
Deputy District Attorney Dennis Panish said in his opening statement that Pilson, then 16, shot 26-year-old Khadar Hassan when the Somali man refused to empty his pockets during a holdup.
Panish said Hassan and two friends were waiting for food outside Taco Fiesta taco shop around 3 a.m. on Aug. 14, 2003, when two men — one white and one black — confronted the group and demanded money.
Hassan — who had been drinking — approached the two assailants with a beer bottle in his hand and was shot in the back of the head, Panish told the jury.
Police had no clues until Mildred Miller came forward and said her brother-in-law, Sherman Strong, told her he was going to pull a “lick,” or robbery, that night, the prosecutor said.
Panish alleged that Strong — who is black — and Pilson — who is white — wore bandanas to cover their faces like cowboys and shot Hassan when he wouldn’t give them any money.
Miller was given immunity, but testified that she didn’t know Pilson and had just seen him around. The witness said she was lying when she told police that Pilson was at the crime scene that night and had a gun.
Pilson’s half-sister told police in October 2006 she was home the night of the murder and her brother told her he was going to “pull a lick,” according to the prosecutor.
She told police Strong said something had happened at the taco shop and warned her “don’t go down there,” Panish told the jury.
Pilson’s half-sister also told police she was jumped and stabbed by a group of Somalis three days before the murder, the prosecutor said.
Defense attorney Mary Knockeart told the jury that a cook who witnessed the murder said the gunman was right-handed, while Pilson is left-handed.
One of Hassan’s friends and the cook were unable to pick Pilson out of a photo lineup of possible suspects, the attorney said.
Knockeart said some of the witnesses for the prosecution are drug users, criminals and mentally ill people who have something to lose if they don’t cooperate.
Miller was under the influence of methamphetamine the night of the killing and believes something happened that didn’t, Knockeart said.
Pilson’s half-sister made up stories about Pilson confessing to her and about her being stabbed by a group of Somalis, the defense attorney said.
She said no witnesses saw Pilson at the taco shop the night of the murder and no physical evidence existed tying her client to the killing. Strong, now 31, is scheduled to go on trial in October.
This story was written and edited by City News Service.