Mehserle trial goes to jury

(07-02) 16:19 PDT LOS ANGELES -- A year and a half after a young man and a young police officer crossed paths on an Oakland BART platform, a dozen ordinary people retreated into a nondescript meeting room Friday afternoon and began weighing the murder case against former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle.

They started deliberating after attorneys used theatrical flourishes in a final attempt to sway a decision that rests largely on a single question: When Mehserle, 28, shot 22-year-old Oscar Grant in the back during an arrest Jan. 1, 2009, did he think he was holding his gun or his Taser in his right hand?

As he neared the end of his closing argument, defense attorney Michael Rains held a blue, rubber training pistol in his right hand, lifted it in front of the jury box and proclaimed, "You've got a shot at justice."

Prosecutor David Stein went even bigger at the close of his rebuttal argument. He pulled a 2-foot bronze statue of "Lady Justice" out of a cardboard box, pointed to the blindfold and the sword and the scales, and said, "Blind justice is blind equality - that's what we strive for."

Jury's choices

Judge Robert Perry then read 45 minutes' worth of legal instructions to jurors, including definitions of three crimes of which Mehserle may be convicted - second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter.

He told them they could make use of notes they have taken, but could not research the case on the Internet, fly up to Oakland to gather clues, or rely on coin flips.

Argument for acquittal

The panel began deliberations at 1:40 p.m. and met until 4 p.m., then went home. Jurors are scheduled to reconvene at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

During closing arguments, Rains asked jurors to acquit Mehserle of all crimes while accepting his account that he shot Grant while intending to subdue him with a Taser after a fight on a train.

Deploying a Taser would have been reasonable, Rains said, because Grant, though unarmed and prone, was resisting Mehserle's efforts to handcuff him and reached his right hand into his pants pocket.

Stein argued that Grant's killing at the Fruitvale Station was a second-degree murder because the Hayward resident was shot deliberately while trying to get his hands behind his back with two officers on top of him.

Although Stein gave definitions for the manslaughter counts, he did not focus on them.

Given a last chance to talk to the jurors, attorneys fought for their hearts as well as their minds. Rains, referring to the fact that his client sat as still as stone and stared straight ahead for much of the trial, said Mehserle had trouble revisiting the night that changed his life.

"You create a cave for your mind and body, and you crawl into it," Rains said. "He's been in his cave."

When it was his turn, Stein said it was natural for jurors to feel sympathy for Mehserle after seeing him every day in court and watching him cry on the witness stand.

"Johannes Mehserle becomes humanized right before you," Stein said. Then, putting up a smiling photo of Grant in a black sweatshirt and cap on two television screens, Stein asked, "Who gets lost in all that? The victim. It's Oscar Grant. You don't see Oscar Grant coming into the courtroom every day."

Plea for calm

Hundreds of miles north, in Oakland, community leaders held an afternoon news conference to plead for calm after the verdict is announced. It was the latest of several such events in the past week.

"This is not Mississippi in the 1950s - this is Oakland in 2010," Mayor Ron Dellums said at the Youth UpRising center in East Oakland as police, fire and elected officials, community organizers and youth leaders stood behind him. "Our starting point has to be a progressive starting point."

'Dignity and respect'

The mayor said he understands the anger and pain felt by many over Grant's slaying. But speaking out and working to undo injustice is the way to express those feelings, he said - not destroying property and injuring people.

"We need to respond with strength, dignity and respect," he said. "We will demonstrate to the nation that we can handle this as a model city."

Chronicle staff writer

Kevin Fagan contributed

to this report.

E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle