The jury of six men and six women returned with a verdict of not guilty about 1:30 p.m. after only an hour and a half of deliberation.
R. Scott Adams, the lead defense attorney in the trial of Prentice, who was charged with shooting with intent to kill, said after the verdict was in that, though he feels sorry for the Ceniceros family, the jury did “absolutely the right thing.”
Adams’ associate, Joe Brett Reynolds, said, “I’ve never seen more reasonable doubt in a criminal case. It seemed like a witch hunt from the beginning.”
In her closing argument before the jury went into deliberation, Assistant District Attorney Jan Warren ran down the facts of the case, as seen by the state, then told jurors, “Don’t leave your common sense outside,” emphasizing the importance of weighing the credibility of witnesses, prior inconsistent statements, as well as former convictions and drug use and trafficking of several shackled and handcuffed prisoners brought forth by the state to take the stand.
Warren reiterated what the state had maintained since within three hours of the shooting ... that Prentice had committed it. “You’ve heard the expression ‘You don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.’ Well you don’t have to worry about Mark Prentice doing that; he’s gonna bring an automatic weapon,” she said.
Adams took up the witness credibility theme introduced by Warrren and spared no feelings in his scourging of the state’s reliance on “jail house informers” who were caught in many inconsistencies with their prior statements.
“What you’ve seen in this courtroom I have never seen,” Adams said. “ I have never seen anything like it.”
Adams reviewed some of the testimony given during the trial:
— Floyd Allen, of 601 S. Julian, could not identify either of the two “Spanish people” running across his front yard, headed toward the railroad tracks.
— Scott Neighbors, who was wounded in the foot that night, but refused treatment, had never seen Prentice with a gun and had no problem with the man. However, Neighbors testified, John Paul Salomon, who on Sept. 30 pleaded guilty to shooting Benny Ceniceros, had pulled a gun on him on two prior occasions.
— Autumn Robinson, who was with her boyfriend, Lanny Morgan, at Morgan’s the house at 608 S. Julian at time of the shooting, never saw Prentice that night.
— James Flowers, who was also at the 608 S. Julian house at the time, never saw Prentice that night.
— No .40-caliber or .45-caliber shells were found at the scene. Salomon testified that he had taken up position at the southwest corner of 618 S. Julian with a Glock .40 that night, while Prentice was the one who unleashed the barrage of bullets from the northeast side of the vacant house from a Heckler and Koch MP-5. Neither weapon has been found. However, police recovered 27 9 mm shell casings from a 3- to 5- foot area on the northeast corner of the home.
— Detective Daniel Myer said that no physical evidence at the scene linked Prentice to the crime.
— Benny Ceniceros never saw Prentice that night and knew of no reason that Prentice would shoot him.
As to Salomon’s testimony under oath, and the plea agreement he’d made with the District Attorney’s Office, Adams said, “I have never in my entire career ever seen such a maggot.”
To think that he’s going to be out on the streets, he said, “makes me want to puke.”
On Feb. 3, according to Salomon’s testimony, he told police that the perpetrators in the Labor Day shooting were Morgan and James Petty.
Morgan and his girlfriend, Autumn Robinson, both of 608 S. Julian, were arrested on a warrant Sept. 20, 2004, after a search of their home uncovered methamphetamine as well as a shotgun, a 9 mm handgun, a .38 caliber handgun and ammunition and a Suzuki four-wheel all terrain vehicle that had been reported stolen.
Morgan is charged with four felony counts: possession of a controlled dangerous substance within 2,000 feet of a school/park with intent to distribute, knowingly concealing stolen property, unlawful use of a police radio and possession of firearms after former conviction.
Robinson was charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of paraphernalia.
Petty, who was 34 that fall of 2004, was found dead on the morning of Nov. 12 that year off the road near an intersection of South County Road 203 and East County Road 166, the victim of multiple gunshot wounds.
On Feb. 15, Salomon changed his testimony to say that he and Prentice had committed the crime, and his bond was reduced that day from $450,000 to $10,000.
He subsequently went on the lam, and when he failed to appear at a preliminary hearing on April 25, a warrant was issued for his arrest. On July 13, he was picked up in Midwest City by the Metro Fugitive Task Force based in Oklahoma City. Agents seized from Salomon a handgun and 8 to 9 grams of methamphetamine.
Oklahoma County sentenced him to 10 years in the state Department of Corrections.
Salomon admitted Tuesday that he’d made a plea agreement with the District Attorney’s Office promising him a 20 year sentence on all counts — shooting with intent to kill Benny and Guadalupe Ceniceros as well as felony drug charges. He would serve 10 years in prison and 10 years on probation — to run concurrently with the 10 years he’d gotten in Oklahoma County — if he changed the testimony he’d given under oath on Feb. 3.
Adams was visibly angry as he asked the jury to imagine being in jail and being offered the chance by the state to cut a deal. “You help me out, I’m gonna help you out,” Adams said. “It is over and it is done, and these maggots will sell out their own mother.”
Salomon, he said, “got a get-out-of-jail-free card.
“Do you think that’s a motive to lie? Are you kidding me? That’s what’s wrong with this kind of crap; we are begging people to lie.”
Adams delved further into what happens when we enter the labyrinth of lying: “If you do tell a lie, it’s hard to keep it straight. Liars always have a theme, but they can never keep the details straight ... ever.”
The MP-5 — which has never been found — is out there on the street, Adams told the jurors. And Salomon has told three separate versions of what happened to it.
“That MP-5’s gotta have about 50 fingerprints of the maggot all over it,” Adams said, directly pointing the finger at Salomon.
“If John Paul Salomon is not reasonable doubt, that term does not exist in the English language, and it should not be used in this courtroom,” Adams said.
Adams also lambasted Morgan, who testified Wednesday that he was “partially truthful” when he was interviewed the morning of Sept. 6, 2004, by Altus police when he told them he didn’t see who shot Benny Ceniceros earlier that morning because, he said, he was “scared of the shooter.”
“No, I ain’t seen Mark like in two days, me and him, you know, we don’t kick it,” he told police that day, according to the transcript.
Morgan testified in this hearing that he had seen Prentice at his house at 608 S. Julian that night with the MP-5. However, in the preliminary hearing, when asked by Adams that if he’d told detectives on Sept. 6 that Prentice had not been to his house, whether it would be a truth or a lie, Morgan replied, “If I told the detectives that, it would be true.”
Adams pointed out that things had changed for Morgan on Sept. 20 when he and Robinson were arrested. Morgan, he said, is a three time loser. “He’s looking at going to the penitentiary for life, and that’s where he should be.”
“You should be insulted,” Adams told the jury. “Let’s make one simple thing clear ... we’re not gonna be fooled. The state wants you to believe they have no deal with Lanny. Does that offend you? Does it?”
Warren promised the jury that there was no such deal with Morgan.
Morgan, who has been jailed since Sept. 20, 2004, and has not yet entered a plea on his charges, did not contact police until Dec. 4 of that year, the same day Prentice was arrested. “He’s the whole reason Mark is arrested,” Adams said. “Do you not think this guy is begging ... begging ... to get out of jail?”
Finally, Adams reminded the jury of the testimony given by Prentice’s fianc/e, Stephanie Sanchez, who testified that Prentice was at home with her when police say he shot Ceniceros.
Adams told the jurors that to find Prentice guilty, they would have to conclude that Sanchez is a liar and that Salomon and Morgan are not.
“I would like to see the fastest verdict in Jackson County,” Adams said.
In conclusion, Adams suggested to the jurors that they write a letter to District Attorney John Wampler, requesting that he “get these scumbags off our streets. Tell him to stop it.”
Warren, in her rebuttal, agreed. “Ladies and gentlemen, there are maggots out there,” she told the jurors, adding that Adams is right in asking them to write a letter. “I didn’t create the system; I work within it with what I have,” she said.
Prentice’s legal troubles are not yet over, by a long shot. He is charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of Petty, for which he faces the death penalty if convicted.
Adams and Reynolds remain as Prentice’s attorneys of record, and a motion hearing in the murder case before District Judge Richard B. Darby, who presided over this trial, was set for Jan. 3.
“Justice was done,” Adams said, “We’ll move on to a new day.”
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