The trial of a Lake Forest man accused of killing his stepmother with an ax in 2013 led to a mistrial on Monday, Oct. 17, earlier than a second part of the trial might start to find out whether or not he was sane on the time of the slaying.
An Orange County Superior Court docket jury deliberated for rather less than a day and a half earlier than telling a choose it was hopelessly deadlocked as as to if Oscar Luis Morlett III, now 30 years outdated, was responsible of first-degree homicide for the Aug. 9, 2013, killing of 66-year-old Jeanne Morlett.
Jurors advised a choose that 11 of them believed Morlett is responsible of first-degree homicide, based on the DA’s Workplace, whereas the twelfth juror believed he's responsible of second-degree homicide.
First-degree homicide requires premeditation.
Morlett’s lawyer contends that he's not responsible by purpose of madness — which implies even when the jury had discovered him responsible of the killing, the panel would have needed to return to a Newport Seaside courtroom for the sanity part to decided whether or not Morlett was within the midst of a psychotic episode when he killed his stepmother; if that's the case, he would go to a mental-health facility slightly than jail.
Specialists assigned to guage Morlett provided differing diagnoses, with at the very least one figuring out he suffered from borderline character dysfunction whereas one other testified he's schizophrenic.
Throughout closing arguments on Wednesday, Deputy District Lawyer Seton Hunt advised jurors that Morlett waited till his father and brother left the house, obtained a pickax from the yard and struck his stepmother at the very least 18 instances in the master suite.
After spending years dwelling along with his mom, adopted by a short interval dwelling in his automobile, Morlett, then 21, had moved in along with his father and his stepmother. The prosecutor stated Morlett was quickly angered by the stepmother’s plan to promote the house they have been dwelling in, at one level telling a neighbor that he wished to kill her.
“He made the choice to kill her as a result of he was offended at her for quite a lot of causes, however primarily for the housing scenario and the sale of the house,” Hunt advised jurors.
Morlett initially advised police that his stepmother had been killed by gardeners earlier than ultimately admitting to hitting her with the pickax. At one level within the police interview, the prosecutor stated, Morlett advised them he had been “making an attempt to chop her very important organs and veins from inside. … I do know what I did was improper; it’s the worst factor you are able to do.”
Morlett’s lawyer, Ed Beckett, countered his shopper was not able to forming the intent required to commit a homicide: “Mr. Morlett was in no state to fastidiously contemplate a lot of something.”
Beckett famous that Morlett, following hospitalization, had been prescribed anti-psychotic medicine, thought it was unclear if he had been taking it. Neighbors and members of the family stated Morlett made random, seemingly disconnected feedback, the protection lawyer added.
Morlett later advised police and medical doctors a number of contradictory and seemingly delusional causes for attacking his stepmother, the protection lawyer stated, together with that she wished to die, or that his father had raped his stepmother and Morlett didn’t need her to inform on his father.
“It isn't based mostly on goal actuality,” Beckett stated.
Morlett’s trial was delayed over time, as he was despatched to a state hospital for therapy after a choose at one level decided he was not mentally competent to face trial.
In line with court docket information, a date for a retrial had not but been set.