LONG BEACH -- An appeals court panel has reversed the murder conviction of a mother who drove her teenage son and some of his friends to a Long Beach park where a 13-year-old rival gang member was stabbed to death.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal panel ruled 2-1 on Monday that jurors in the case of 33-year-old Eva Daley were given an "impermissibly ambiguous" jury instruction during the 2008 trial.
Associate Justice Laurie D. Zelon wrote that the case records don't show that the jury based its verdict on a legally valid theory, so her conviction should be reversed.
Daley had been convicted of second-degree murder for the 2007 death of Jose Cano.
Prosecutors argued that Daley wanted revenge because Cano allegedly stabbed her son six months earlier.
During her trial, Daley portrayed herself as a struggling single mother of three who had little idea that her oldest son was in a gang.
She testified that she was driving her son's friends home on the evening of June 25, 2007, when they suddenly jumped out of her white Chevrolet Tahoe and carried out the assault.
But Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lonergan rejected her story, telling jurors that the attack on Jose Cano was planned in revenge for an incident hours earlier in which a group of youngsters from the victim's gang threw roadside flares at Daley's apartment.
Some of her son's friends who admitted attacking Cano testified during the trial that Daley picked them up that night and drove them to the area near 14th Street Park, where the assault took place.
A bystander who was walking his dog that evening also told the court that he heard a woman in the car shout to the other boys as they raced back from the attack, "Let's go! Let's go! Come on! Come on!"
Lonergan told jurors that blood from the victim and the assailant, who was also convicted of second-degree murder, were found inside Daley's vehicle.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal panel ruled 2-1 on Monday that jurors in the case of 33-year-old Eva Daley were given an "impermissibly ambiguous" jury instruction during the 2008 trial.
Associate Justice Laurie D. Zelon wrote that the case records don't show that the jury based its verdict on a legally valid theory, so her conviction should be reversed.
Daley had been convicted of second-degree murder for the 2007 death of Jose Cano.
Prosecutors argued that Daley wanted revenge because Cano allegedly stabbed her son six months earlier.
During her trial, Daley portrayed herself as a struggling single mother of three who had little idea that her oldest son was in a gang.
She testified that she was driving her son's friends home on the evening of June 25, 2007, when they suddenly jumped out of her white Chevrolet Tahoe and carried out the assault.
But Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lonergan rejected her story, telling jurors that the attack on Jose Cano was planned in revenge for an incident hours earlier in which a group of youngsters from the victim's gang threw roadside flares at Daley's apartment.
Some of her son's friends who admitted attacking Cano testified during the trial that Daley picked them up that night and drove them to the area near 14th Street Park, where the assault took place.
A bystander who was walking his dog that evening also told the court that he heard a woman in the car shout to the other boys as they raced back from the attack, "Let's go! Let's go! Come on! Come on!"
Lonergan told jurors that blood from the victim and the assailant, who was also convicted of second-degree murder, were found inside Daley's vehicle.
