Thursday, January 19, 1995 METRO Page B1 GOOF LEADS TO
MISTRIAL IN MURDER By JAMES VARNEY
Staff writer
It took competing lawyers 12 hours to select a jury
in the first-degree murder trial of Gerald Mercadel in
New Orleans.
It took a judge just five minutes to send them all
home.
Assistant District Attorney Glynn Alexander had barely
begun to outline his case when he said Mercadel, 18,
had made a confession. But prosecutors are forbidden
by law from mentioning confessions in their opening
statements, and the revelation brought Defense
Attorney Jeffrey Smith to his feet asking for a
mistrial.
Smith said he might have overlooked the slip, but
since prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, he
had to make sure every procedure was followed.
"I was shocked, " Smith said. "But you can't be
cavalier about a capital case and say 'I'll win this
thing at trial anyway.' "
Judge Dennis Waldron granted the mistrial and
dismissed the jury. A full day Tuesday had produced
just 10 acceptable jurors, and that group spent
Tuesday night sequestered. The final two members were
picked Wednesday morning.
Mercadel is accused of shooting Tommie Ashley, 21, in
the Lower 9th Ward in August 1993. He gained further
notoriety by breaking out of Orleans Parish Prison
twice for brief periods, once in October 1994 and then
again in November.
Alexander didn't run from his mistake.
"I made a rookie error, " he said.
Another trial date for Mercadel on the same charge
will be set later.
