Livermore Man's Murder Conviction Thrown Out

LIVERMORE, CA — A California appeals court on Monday threw out a murder conviction for a Livermore man found guilty of drunkenly crashing into an apartment complex and killing a mother and her baby.

Bay Area News Group first reported the news.

Brian Z. Jones, 40, was sentenced in 2018 to 30 years to life in prison after he was convicted in 2017 of second-degree murder for causing the deaths of Esperanza Morales-Rodriguez, 46, of Seaside and daughter Ulidia Perez-Morales, 14 months old. He was also convicted on a felony driving while intoxicated charge for injuring a 7-year-old boy at the scene. Another child was injured at the scene

The crash occurred after Jones drank 20 ounces of beer at the Livermore Wine Festival in 2015, drank another 22-ounce beer at a restaurant, then drove his Corvette at nearly 100 mph on a 35 mph road, court records show. His car jumped the curb near a home where a family party was taking place, hit a utility box, then hit Morales-Rodriguez, baby Ulidia and the two other children.

The Alameda County District Attorney can retry the case.

On Monday a California appeals court ruled that the conviction should be tossed because Alameda County Superior Court Judge Paul Delucchi should not have dismissed Juror #10 who "felt coerced or bullied" by Juror #9, the appeals court wrote.

Juror #10 told a courtroom clerk that she felt Juror #9 was trying to convince her not to vote for manslaughter charges. Juror #10 said that Juror #9 told her with "attitude" that they read in the newspaper that Jones had a prior driving under the influence charge.

Juror #9 was dismissed for violating the court's instructions to ignore outside information.

When asked by Judge Delucchi if it would be difficult for Juror #10 to continue in her deliberations, she said yes, court records show.

Delucchi decided to dismiss Juror #10 against the wishes of Jones's counsel, saying that she indicated she was too upset to continue with deliberations she felt bullied.

Jones moved for a mistrail, arguing that Juror #9's misconduct tainted the other jurors and Juror #10 was dismissed despite not doing anything wrong, court records show.

Delucchi denied the motion, saying remaining jurors indicated they could ignore Juror #9's statement and Juror #10 said she was too upset to continue.

The two jurors were replaced and after more than four hours of deliberation, the jury unanimously decided to find Jones guilty on all charges.

The appeals court wrote that there is a high bar for deciding to excuse a juror and Delucchi did not meet that standard. Juror #10 didn't ask to be discharged and didn't say she was unwilling or unable to continue, the court wrote.

"Although we are sympathetic to the quandary facing the trial judge in these circumstances, the record simply does not support, as a demonstrable reality, a conclusion that Juror No. 10 was unable or unwilling to continue deliberating," the court wrote. "The error is prejudicial and requires reversal of the judgment."

Read more about the appeals case here.

— Bay City News Service contributed to this report