Verdicts

A Los Angeles man was found guilty of second-degree murder Monday in the fatal stabbing of a USC film student last year during a street fight sparked by the noise from a slammed gate. Travion T. Ford, 25, who sometimes worked as an usher at USC football games, faces a sentence of 16 years to life in state prison for the Sept. 18 murder of Bryan R. Frost, 23, near the university. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 29. The jury of seven men and five women found Ford not guilty of first-degree murder, which would have required greater proof of premeditation and intent to kill.

Three young Britons were declared guilty Monday in a London court of planning to blow up transatlantic planes in a spectacularly scaled, Al Qaeda terrorist plot that could have killed thousands of people. A jury in Woolwich Crown Court convicted Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, Tanvir Hussain, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 29, of conspiring to murder by setting off liquid bombs smuggled aboard seven North America-bound airliners in sports-drink bottles. Police have said their plan was possibly days from fruition when the men were arrested in August 2006 amid the biggest counter-terrorism investigation in British history.

Fourteen years ago today -- shock and awe. After 16 tawdry months of the Simpson case wallpapering the public square, a Los Angeles criminal court jury found O.J. Simpson not guilty of the hideous murders of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ron Goldman. The trial made a lot of people famous, but one of its insiders is someone you've probably never heard of: Jerrianne Hayslett. As the information officer for the Los Angeles Superior Courts, she danced a daily minuet between the media and the courts, and every reporter, photographer and news technician among the hundreds who buzzed around the trial wanted her ear and her help.

Five men were convicted today of plotting a terrorist attack by collecting bomb-making instructions and purchasing explosive chemicals in Australia's largest terrorist conspiracy. A jury deliberated for a month before finding the men guilty of conspiring to commit acts in preparation for a terrorist attack. Each faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. During the trial, which began in November, prosecutor Richard Maidment told the jury in New South Wales state Supreme Court that the men planned to use explosive devices or firearms to commit "extreme violence" in a bid to force Australia's government to change its policy on Middle East conflicts.

Convicted of profiting from illicit arms sales to Angola, a former French interior minister is roiling the political establishment by accusing other officials of knowing about the deal and demanding that the government open secret files to prove him right. Charles Pasqua, the former minister who now is a member of France's Senate, and Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, son of a former president, were among 36 people found guilty Tuesday of knowingly profiting from or facilitating the unauthorized $790-million sale in the 1990s.

John O'Quinn, the Houston trial lawyer who won a $1-billion verdict in a diet drug case and shared more than $3 billion in legal fees representing Texas in tobacco litigation, died today in a car crash. He was 68. O'Quinn was killed with his driver when their sport utility vehicle slammed into a tree in Houston, attorney Neil McCabe at the O'Quinn Law Firm confirmed. O'Quinn, known for a folksy style and rapport with jurors, represented plaintiffs in personal-injury and product-defect lawsuits, winning billions in jury verdicts and out-of-court settlements.

A physician accused of deliberately injuring two cyclists by slamming on his car's brakes on a narrow Brentwood road was convicted Monday of mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon and other serious criminal charges. Dr. Christopher Thompson, 60, slumped forward and held his face in his hands after the verdicts were announced in a courtroom packed mostly with supporters and cyclists. Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary Stone, who prosecuted the case, asked for Thompson to be jailed immediately, calling him a flight risk and a safety threat to cyclists.

Russell Otis, who directed Dominguez High School in Compton to five state boys' basketball championships, was convicted Tuesday of misdemeanor child molesting, a crime that, withstanding appeals, would bar him from coaching or teaching minors. The 47-year-old Otis, sitting stern-faced as the verdicts were read, was acquitted of committing felony theft and forgery by depositing a $15,000 Nike check written to the Compton Unified School District into his personal bank account. After 11 days of deliberations, the Los Angeles County Superior Court jury in Compton deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of conviction on a felony charge of meeting a minor for lewd purposes.

The first polygamist sect member to face criminal trial after the raid at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in West Texas last year was convicted Thursday of sexual assault of a child. Jurors took a little more than two hours to convict Raymond Jessop, 38, of sexually assaulting a teenager with whom he had a so-called spiritual marriage. Jessop allegedly has nine wives. He faces a bigamy charge, but that case is to be tried later. The girl in the assault case, now 21, was previously in a "spiritual marriage" with Jessop's brother before being "reassigned" to Jessop when she was 15, according to documents seized at the ranch.

In a case that federal prosecutors trumpeted as the "largest ever" of its kind, 10 members and associates of the Florencia 13 street gang were convicted Monday of a host of federal charges, including racketeering, drug trafficking and attempted murder. The verdicts followed a 3 1/2 -month trial in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana in which prosecutors told jurors of a widespread criminal enterprise directed by Mexican Mafia members, both on the street and in prison. The gang controlled drug distribution in unincorporated areas south of Los Angeles and in Huntington Park and collected "rent" from people who wanted to commit crimes in the area it claimed, according to prosecutors.