Extra

Flash: Mehserle Verdict Soon

By Bay City News
Thursday July 08, 2010 - 04:01:00 PM

Jurors in the trial of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle have reached a verdict. 

The verdict will be read at 4 p.m., according to the Los Angeles County Superior Court.  

Mehserle, 28, is charged with murder for the shooting death of unarmed passenger Oscar Grant III on the platform of the Fruitvale station in Oakland early on New Year's Day 2009. 

Jurors in Mehserle's trial have only deliberated for the equivalent of about one full day. 

Jurors deliberated for two hours and 20 minutes after getting the case at 1:40 p.m. on Friday, then adjourned for the long holiday weekend. 

They didn't deliberate on Tuesday because a juror was sick. On Wednesday, they started from scratch after one juror had to be replaced because he went on a previously planned vacation. 

Jurors then deliberated for only two and a half hours on Wednesday because one of the jurors had a medical appointment. 

Mehserle's lawyer, Michael Rains, has admitted that Mehserle shot and killed Grant, a 22-year-old Hayward resident, on the platform of the Fruitvale station in Oakland shortly after 2 a.m. Jan. 1, 2009, after he and other officers responded to a report that there was a fight on a train. 

But Rains claims the shooting was an accident and Mehserle, 28, who's free on $3 million bail, meant to use his Taser stun gun on Grant.