Published 2006-11-17T00:00:00Z”/>

Ashley Gebb

Nov. 16, 2006The jury ruled guilty on all three counts Thursday against a man charged in the death of a Chico State student.

Lloyd Murray faces up to 12 years in prison after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter, dissuading a witness and assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, including a special allegation for great bodily injury causing the victim to become comatose.

Murray was accused of punching Chico State student Travis Williams in the head. During a fight in the Holiday Inn parking lot in December, Williams, a bouncer at the hotel bar, fell backward and hit his head, police said.

Williams went into a coma and died five days later.

Deputy District Attorney Tamara Mosbarger kept Williams’ photograph on her desk while presenting her closing argument after the defense rested its case.

“I asked him to be there with me during my closing,” Mosbarger said.

Mosbarger was pleasantly surprised by the jury’s verdict and hopes it brings some closure to the family, she said.

Williams’ family and friends sat smiling and crying as they held hands in the rows behind him.

After the courtroom let out from the verdict reading, Williams’ friends and family gathered around Mosbarger to say, “Thank you” and hear what will happen next in the trial.

William’s mother, Margie Everett, said she is very grateful for the jury’s verdict.

“My son deserved this verdict,” Everett said.

Lindsey Needles, William’s girlfriend, said she was excited and sad at the same time, but she said that justice was served.

Defense attorney Jodea Foster started the morning by calling as a witness the emergency room physician who treated Lloyd and Michael Murray after the fight to testify the extent of the brothers’ injuries.

The next defense witness was the director of the toxicology lab who tested Murray’s blood sample from that night. He testified Murray’s blood alcohol content was .19 and told the jury what types of behavior could be expected from that level of intoxication.

In her cross-examination, Mosbarger asked Knapp how many drinks a person would have to consume to have that blood alcohol content. Knapp appeared to do a calculation of the weight, height and sex of the defendant and said it would be the equivalent of 10 drinks, or 10 ounces of hard alcohol.

Foster finished witness testimony with Sgt. Rob Merrifield to testify about witness statements he took immediately after the fight.

The defense’s licensed private investigator played a tape of an interview from a witness who said she could not say for certain who punched Williams.

Mosbarger began her closing argument by outlining the charges and then telling the story of the night as told by the witnesses.

Several times she swung her right arm from her waist to head-level to demonstrate the roundhouse punch witnesses said Williams was struck with. She also motioned her hand falling flatly forward to demonstrate Williams fall from the punch to the ground.

One of Mosbarger’s main points was that witnesses said the man in each step of the fight was the same man. Witnesses described the man punching Williams, kicking Williams, being detained by another bouncer and being shocked with a Taser by police.

“And we know the man who was tazed to be Lloyd Murray,” Mosbarger said.

Foster said the jurors were told they would have to look at the story objectively, despite the tragedy involved when they first received their instructions.

“What happened in this case is an absolute tragedy,” Foster said. “No one wants another tragedy – somebody getting convicted on a gut level.”

Foster compared the fight that night to “an old saloon brawl.”

It is the jurors’ jobs to determine if the witnesses’ testimonies were true, Foster said.

Foster had drawn outlines of each charge on large white pieces of paper. He went through each charge and its parts to explain that if the prosecution did not prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, the jury would have to rule “not guilty.”

Foster is dissatisfied with the jury’s verdict and will appeal it, he said.

A court hearing will be on Tuesday to rule on Murray’s prison priors. He had been on parole for vehicle theft and possession of methamphetamine for three weeks the night of the fight, Mosbarger said.

Ashley Gebb can be reached at <a href= “mailto:[email protected]”>[email protected]</a>