January 9, 2009
Jury continues deliberations after hearing readbacks
A Suffolk jury deliberating the fate of John White, the Miller Place man charged with killing Daniel Cicciaro Jr., was asked to continue deliberating until at least 9 p.m. Saturday by Suffolk County Court Judge Barbara Kahn.
On Saturday afternoon, the jury heard readbacks of the testimony of White, his son Aaron and wife Sonia.
In each case, they asked to hear testimony of the night in question beginning from when Aaron White woke his sleeping father through the confrontation outside.
Earlier in the day, White's attorneys held an impromptu news conference "out of necessity" to assert that the victim was not friends with White's son Aaron.
As the White family stood together for the press for the first time since the trial began, defense attorney Frederick Brewington of Hempstead, reading from a prepared statement, emphatically said that Aaron White, 20, never had dinner at the Cicciaro household, nor did he attend the same high school as Cicciaro.
Cicciaro's family never publicly said otherwise, but had said that the two were friends, and that Aaron White had visited the Cicciaro's family business, Dano's Auto Clinic in Port Jefferson. Brewington disputed those assertions too.
Saying that Cicciaro's family had attempted to "rewrite history," Brewington called Aaron a "victim" in the case, who was ignored by Daniel Cicciaro Jr. and in fact was treated as though he were invisble."
"In fact, on August 9, 2006, Aaron White was not treated as a friend but labeled a [N-word] - threatened and cursed at like he had no rights as a person," Brewington said.
During a brief pause after his statement, reporters did not have any questions.
Meanwhile, just a few yards away in the court hallway, Cicciaro's family was reeling from news that a close friend of Cicciaro Jr., Nick Manzo, had been seriously injured Friday in a motorcycle accident. Manzo had attended the trial in recent weeks.
Manzo, 21, of Sound Beach was in critical condition at Stony Brook University Hospital after police said John Urbanski, 47, of 99 Coates Avenue North, Holbrook, turned his 2002 Suzuki Vitara in front of Manzo's motorcycle on Route 25A in Rocky Point. Urbanski was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated.
On Friday, the jury's third day of deliberations, jurors told a judge they appeared "hopelessly deadlocked" on the top charge of second-degree manslaughter.
The jurors, showing what appeared to be some exasperation, also asked Judge Kahn to read back to them the oath they took before the trial began.
In the last of the three notes that came in rapid succession Friday, the jury forewoman wrote, "The problem that we are having is that some jurors aren't interpreting the law as stated in our directions."
The developments came during a tumultuous day in which jurors sent out at least seven notes, and the court stenographer at one point broke down in tears while reading back testimony to jurors.
White, 54, is charged with manslaughter. Prosecutors say he pointed his .32 Beretta as close as a half-inch from Daniel Cicciaro Jr.'s face and fired, killing the Newfield High School graduate. The slaying occurred outside White's Independence Way home, where Cicciaro and four friends went on the night of Aug. 9, 2006, to settle a dispute with White's teenage son, Aaron.
White's attorneys have referred to Cicciaro and his friends as a violent and racist "lynch mob," and maintain the gun went off accidentally when a drunken Cicciaro grabbed for it.
After receiving the jury's notes, Kahn told them to continue working. Despite four additional notes from the jury expressing scheduling difficulties and reluctance to work over a weekend, Kahn ordered jurors to return to court for a rare Saturday deliberation session.
Suffolk Assistant District Attorney James Chalifoux agreed that "it's far too early to talk about a deadlocked jury."
Cicciaro's parents said they were unshaken by the jury's apparent impasse. "I just think that that means they're really working hard," Joanne Cicciaro said. "I just think they need more time."
White's defense team said they were worried about jurors being pushed too hard, especially with the Christmas holiday looming.
"I'm concerned about pressure developing into coercion and abandonment of ideals and principles," said defense attorney Paul Gianelli, of Hauppauge, who said he had observed what appeared to be "some sharp division" among jurors.
The jurors' claim of a deadlock came before they could have read back to them most of the testimony they requested Thursday afternoon -- including that of the defendant. Early in the day, court stenographer Jennifer Maue was reading the testimony of Alex Delgado, the teen who drove Cicciaro to John White's home, when she appeared choked up with tears and began crying. She asked for a break, and the jury was excused for several minutes.
After a lengthy break, the trial resumed with a different stenographer. Kahn admonished the jurors that although Maue "exhibited some emotion and left the courtroom" they were "to draw no inference whatsoever from these circumstances."
Although defense attorneys said Maue's actions could prejudice jurors, Chalifoux said it was "normal human emotion ... I don't think it had any impact on the jury at all."
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