LA’s 1st trial since March ends with jurors having to fill out verdict forms 4 times

LOS ANGELES -- Jurors in Los Angeles County's first trial since March decided their verdict in 90 minutes by midday Thursday but had to go home and return Friday because they incorrectly filled out the verdict forms three times.

Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta, who had overseen the two-day felony hit and run trial with detailed orders on where jurors, attorneys and witnesses could sit and how exhibits should be handled, delivered 32 pages of jury instructions on Thursday. But time after time, the jurors filled out the forms, waited for them to be reviewed, and were then called back to fill them out again because of mistake. Ohta read the instructions twice, finally temporarily dismissing the jurors Thursday evening.

They returned Friday morning and delivered a verdict of guilty of hit-and-run, causing serious bodily injury.

"Those forms are very easy to mess up," Deputy District Attorney Scott W. Eisen said afterward. "Jurors do it all the time. They're not written in plain English. If you want to find a defendant guilty of the greater and not the minor offense you have to mark one form 'not guilty' and 'guilty' on the other. So that's what happened."

"I've never had it happen," said Deputy Public Defender Anna Brief as she waited in the hallway Thursday for the jurors to finish. "They could be rushing, because it's pretty self explanatory."

When it came to the actual mechanics of trying the case, Brief had to sit 6 feet from her client and confer via headset.

"There was a lot of feedback. It's not an ideal situation. It's awkward," she said. "Usually we're shoulder to shoulder, whispering back and forth and it definitely puts a hamper on attorney-client communication."

Eisen said he didn't "have any difficulties from a process/technical standpoint," in talking through a mask to masked witnesses in front of masked jurors spread around the courtroom.

Brief said that she spoke at least twice a day with her client in the lockup.

"We've been talking about the case since December, so unless something absolutely unheard of came out that would be the only reason to talk to him during the trial," she said.

Asked about the jurors' impressions, she said, "I think the jurors understood why he's 6 feet away. I would hope it didn't have a bearing on their decision in this case." People v. Dylan Wyatt Chavez XNVPA093925-01 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 13 2019).