*CRIMINAL CASE UPDATE*

JURY RETURNS QUICK GUILTY VERDICTS IN 1982 MURDERS OF TWO RIVERSIDE POLICE OFFICERS

RIVERSIDE - After less than a day of deliberating, a Riverside County jury today convicted Jackson Chambers Daniels Jr. of the 1982 murders of two Riverside police officers.

Jurors deliberated about 30 minutes on Monday and a half-day Tuesday before announcing their verdicts. They found Daniels, DOB: 4-21-38, guilty of two counts of first-degree murder as well as finding true various special circumstances including murder of a peace officer and lying in wait.

District Attorney Rod Pacheco is seeking the death penalty for Daniels. Jurors will return at 9 a.m. Monday, Dec. 14, 2009, to Dept. 52 at the Hall of Justice in Riverside to begin the penalty phase of the trial. At the conclusion of that portion of the trial, jurors will decide whether Daniels should be put to death or sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On May 13, 1982, Riverside police officers Dennis Doty and Philip Trust went to Daniels' Riverside home to arrest him following a previous bank robbery conviction. Daniels was confined to a wheelchair after being shot by police during the 1980 bank robbery.

As his caretaker helped him get dressed, Daniels reached between his legs, pulled out a handgun and fired several shots at Doty and Trust, murdering both officers.

In 1983, Daniels was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death. However, that conviction was reversed in 2005 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Riverside County District Attorney's Office decided to retry Daniels for the murders of the two officers and testimony in the new trial began Nov. 16, 2009.

The case, CR19711, is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Bill Mitchell with the assistance of retired Chief Deputy District Attorney Kevin Ruddy.