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THURSDAY
12.15.16 Volume 16 Issue 28
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Judge reverses local man’s murder conviction BY KATE CAGLE Daily Press Staff Writer
A Santa Monica man convicted of stabbing his friend to death will get a new trial, after a judge with the 2nd District Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the conviction. Two years ago, Ryan Bright was sentenced to 16 years to life in state prison for the 2012 killing of his friend, Jensen Gray. Bright’s attorney appealed the conviction saying the court should have granted a mistrial because of juror misconduct during deliberations. A juror admitted to the judge
he had disregarded the court’s instructions not to consult outside source material when he looked up “murder” and “manslaughter” in the Penal Code. The juror was immediately dismissed and replaced by an alternate juror. Although the trial judge questioned the remaining panel to try to determine whether they had been influenced by the dismissed juror, Judge James R. Dabney found the trial court did not ask enough questions to know whether the jurors had indeed been tainted. SEE CONVICTION PAGE 7
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WHAT’S UP WESTSIDE ..................PAGE 2 DANCE CREDENTIAL ......................PAGE 3 CULTURE WATCH ............................PAGE 4 PLAYTIME ........................................PAGE 5 MYSTERY REVEALED ....................PAGE 9
Santa Monica Daily Press
smdp.com
New mayor sees divided city BY KATE CAGLE Daily Press Staff Writer
Over the past few months conversations at City Hall have not always been, well, diplomatic. A passionate fight over the future of Santa Monica’s skyline played out in the months before voters cast their ballots in the November election, as the battle over Measure LV pitted neighborhood associations against the City Council. The measure would have required a city-wide vote on all development projects above twostories and reflected neighborhood leaders’ distaste for big buildings in Santa Monica.
The measure was defeated but wounds have not healed. In fact, the conversation is about to heat up again as the city decides just how high new buildings can tower over neighbors. With the longawaited Downtown Community Plan heading toward the council chambers, Santa Monica’s new mayor wants to lower the temperature in the room. As he takes the helm, newly appointed Mayor Ted Winterer sees his biggest obstacle as “trying to get our community, which was so divided this fall, to get common ground on so many issues and have an actual dialogue instead of a shouting match.”
Tuesday, the Santa Monica City Council unanimously voted to select Winterer as mayor and Gleam Davis as mayor pro tempore. They will both serve two-year terms. “I thought I had reasonably a good chance of being chosen as mayor, but seeing what happens in the past you take nothing for granted,” Winterer said. A Dartmouth graduate, Winterer has live in Santa Monica for the past 25 years. He’s gradually worked his way up through city government: serving on the Planning Commission, the Ocean Park Association and an organizer SEE MAYOR PAGE 7
ROADS RIVALRY Morgan Genser
Crossroads High School hosted New Roads High School on Dec. 12 in a non-league basketball game won 81-44 improving their record to 7-0 and dropping New Roads record to 4-5. Pictured are Alonzo Olitt from New Roads dribbling the ball Shareef O’Neal and Ben Terry from Crossroads, Crossroads’ DJ Houston jumping as Olitt goes for a layup and Jonah Schwartz from New Roads watches from behind as Crossroads’ Miles Ceballos goes for a layup.
YOUR SANTA MONICA LUXURY REAL ESTATE SPECIALISTS
Todd Mitchell
“ Your Neighborhood is My Neighborhood.” ALPHONSOBJORN.COM 424.253.5489
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