After two trials, the first which ended in a mistrial, late this evening the murder trial of Luis Urbina and Mark Vega concluded in the Supreme Court. At 6:28 pm the jury of 7 men and 5 women returned a verdict of not guilty against Luis Urbina and they were unable to reach a verdict on the charges against his alleged co-conspirator Mark Vega. The two were charged jointly for the June 13th 2002 murder of Susanna Petkan and the attempted murder of her husband Enrique Petkan and use of deadly means of harm. Keith Swift is just back from the Supreme Court with these interviews from defense attorneys Lionel Welch and Leo Bradley Jr. We begin with Welch who defended Urbina.
Lionel Welch, Luis Urbina's Attorney
"My thoughts are that he ought to have been acquitted based on the evidence that have come out in court. My thing also is that the police didn't do proper investigations and the ID parade was not proper and I think that the whole nature of the evidence was such that the decision of the jury was, I think, a good one."
Keith Swift,
Your client took the stand in his own defense. Do you think that worked in his favor with the jury?
Lionel Welch,
"I think it worked in his favor. I spoke to him and he impressed on me that he was not there and that if he goes on the witness stand, he would make that known to the jury that he was not there."
Leo Bradley Jr., Mark Vega's Attorney
"Basically I think that the jurors did a good job in terms of they sat through basically three weeks of testimony and then they went in to deliberate and they basically deliberated for over 4 hours. They came out with the decision on Urbina and mentioned to the Judge that they were not yet decided on the next one. They were sent back in for half hour and they came back out and basically they were instructed by the Judge that if they couldn't reach a decision then he would declare that it was a hung jury."
Keith Swift,
You think prosecutors will re-file charges against your client?
Leo Bradley Jr.,
"Really that is a matter for the DPP. I don't know. He would be the appropriate party to comment on that."
While they weren't convicted Vega and Urbina left the courthouse under heavy police guard because both face other charges and convictions in relation to the northern crime spree in June of 2002.
