Judge Excuses Juror in Samuels Murder Case : Courts: Woman says she has ‘serious questions’ about her ability to vote for the death penalty.

VAN NUYS — A juror who said she had “serious questions” about her ability to vote for the death penalty was dismissed Tuesday from the panel deciding whether Mary Ellen Samuels should be executed for murdering her husband and the hit man she hired to kill him.

“I’m afraid I have lost my credibility with my fellow jurors in my waverings,” juror Audrey Wilson wrote to Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Michael Hoff, asking him to excuse her from the jury after two days of deliberation.

“My continued presence has been disruptive to the progress of relevant discussions.”

After questioning Wilson at length in his chambers, Hoff excused her and appointed an alternate juror to replace her on the panel, which must decide whether to recommend that Samuels be executed or sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

“I hope I’m doing the right thing,” the judge said in court after dismissing the juror.

The jury was ordered to begin its deliberations anew. There was no immediate indication whether the jury had taken any votes.

Defense attorney Phil Nameth said he was “concerned about any pressure on her, based on the fact that the jury may get the impression. . .that they can get rid of somebody by pressuring them, bullying them.”

But prosecutor Jan Maurizi said the juror took pains in her note to the judge to point out that she felt she’d “been treated with fairness and respect by all.”

As the trial began in February in Van Nuys Superior Court, attorneys questioned Wilson and other prospective jurors extensively about their positions on the death penalty.

Among the questions routinely asked of jurors in capital cases is whether they can set aside their personal feelings and follow what the law says about applying the death penalty.

“I’m afraid I’ve waffled,” Wilson told the judge. “In fact, I’d have to say I was really surprised you kept me. I felt I had expressed that I was concerned about my ability to perform.”

She added that she still believes “theoretically” in capital punishment, but questions whether she can personally cast a vote to execute someone.

“I’m undecided and I guess that is frightening to me because I want to be sure,” she said. “When you get into a situation you discover a lot of things about how you feel.”

Although news reporters were excluded from the discussion between Wilson and Judge Hoff in his chambers, the court stenographer’s notes later were made available.

After deliberating 18 days, the jury convicted Samuels July 1 of two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances that made her eligible for the death penalty. The jury found Samuels had masterminded multiple murders, and that she had killed for financial gain.

Testimony during the trial portrayed Samuels as woman who left her husband, then plotted his death before the divorce became final to collect his life insurance and estate. During the year following his death, she inherited and spent $500,000 on parties, limousines, a new Porsche, a condo in Cancun and custom clothes from a store called Trashy Lingerie.

Robert Samuels, 40, a motion picture camera assistant who worked on the films “Lethal Weapon” and “Heaven Can Wait,” was shot in the back of the head with a 16-gauge shotgun on Dec. 8, 1988.

About seven months later, James Bernstein, the 27-year-old reputed drug dealer suspected of shooting Samuels, was strangled and dumped in remote Lockwood Canyon in Ventura County.

Two men who admitted killing Bernstein testified that they did so on orders from Samuels. They testified under plea bargains in which they pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges and received prison sentences of 15 years to life.