For the second time in nine months, a Placer County trial of a nanny accused of shaking a 16-month-old baby and causing its death has ended in a hung jury.
Superior Court Judge Colleen Nichols declared a mistrial Thursday after a jury deliberated five days and reported it was deadlocked 9-3 to acquit defendant Veronica Martinez Salcedo on a charge of assault on a child resulting in death.
While the latest trial, which lasted two months, mirrored the first, the votes were stunningly different. The first jury voted 10-2 to convict Martinez Salcedo in the death of Hannah Rose Juceam of Roseville.
Defense attorney Mary Beth Acton attributed the vote swing to "better experts" in the medical field who testified on behalf of Martinez Salcedo. In addition, the experts had more time to analyze the evidence, she said.
"We had one expert who found a clot in Hannah's brain," she said. "(The clot) is what killed her."
Acton said that if that clot had been detected before Hannah became unresponsive on May 11, 2006, "they could have treated it and saved the baby's life."
Prosecutor Jeff Wood said he thought he and co-counsel Karin Bjork had presented a stronger case in the second trial, but the new jurors just reached a different conclusion.
"They weighed the evidence differently," Wood said.
District Attorney Brad Fenocchio would not say whether his office would refile charges again.
"We'll make that decision with detached reflection," he said, adding that prosecutors will be in court next Thursday to let the judge know their decision.
The family of Martinez Salcedo declined to comment.
The defendant, a resident of Mexico, dropped her head and cried when the latest mistrial was announced. She is being held in Placer County jail for immigration officials, who have determined that she is in the country illegally.
Hannah's parents, who were served with a temporary restraining order this week for allegedly harassing Acton, met with reporters Thursday afternoon at East Lawn Cemetery in Sacramento, where their daughter is buried.
Standing at Hannah's grave, Scott and Lorena Juceam declared that a crime had gone unpunished.
"Her rotten soul knows that she took my daughter's life," Lorena Juceam said about Martinez Salcedo.
The parents seemed resigned to the possibility that the District Attorney's Office may not seek a third trial.
"This (latest) trial has proven that the justice system is not about truth but about winning and losing," Scott Juceam said, denouncing medical experts who "come in and fabricate stories."
He promised that his family will continue to honor Hannah's memory by delivering the message that no one should ever shake a baby.
Hannah was found unresponsive on May 11, 2006, while under the watch of Martinez Salcedo in the Juceam home in Roseville.
Attending physicians said Hannah suffered severe brain injuries from a violent shaking. Her parents decided to pull Hannah off life support two days later after doctors told them she had little or no chance of living a normal life if she survived.
In both trials, Acton raised questions about Hannah's injuries.
She called medical experts to testify that the injuries may have occurred several days earlier and gone undetected until the baby lost consciousness May 11.
Acton said Martinez Salcedo only shook Hannah lightly to see if she would awaken.
Prosecutors Bjork and Wood contended the nanny inflicted the child's injuries in frustration when she was unable to keep Hannah from crying after Lorena Juceam left the house on an errand.
They cited the defendant's giving four different stories about the incident as proof she is guilty.
Most of the jurors who left the courtroom Thursday declined to speak with reporters.
One, who identified herself only as JoAnn and said she voted for acquittal, said the defense presented "too much reasonable doubt" for jurors to convict.
"The biggest hurt is not being able to reach a decision," she said.
Call The Bee's Art Campos, (916) 773-2825.
