Bingham’s Jurors Review Prison Guard’s Testimony

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. —  A jury reheard portions of a prison guard’s testimony Tuesday in the trial of a longtime fugitive accused of igniting a 1971 prison break attempt by slipping a pistol to a militant inmate.

Stephen Bingham, 44, could be sentenced to life in prison if the Marin County Superior Court jury convicts him of two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy. The jury of 10 women and two men, which began deliberations late Friday, recessed for the day Tuesday afternoon without reaching a verdict.

The jurors interrupted their discussion of the case Monday, asking to see some of the more than 200 exhibits and to rehear some portions of testimony in the trial, which began on April 7.

Cross-Examination

On Tuesday, the jurors heard the transcript of the cross-examination of former San Quentin prison guard Urbano Rubiaco Jr., one of three guards who survived wounds inflicted by knife-wielding inmates in a cellblock blood bath that left six dead.

The violence occurred minutes after Black Panther leader George Jackson returned to his cellblock from an attorney-client visit with Bingham on Aug. 21, 1971. Rubiaco testified that Jackson pulled a 9-millimeter pistol and two ammunition clips from beneath an Afro wig and forced him to release about two dozen inmates in the maximum security cellblock.

Three guards and two inmate trustees were killed in the resulting violence. Prison officials say Jackson was gunned down as he sprinted toward an outside wall.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Terry Boren contends that Bingham slipped Jackson the pistol, which had been hidden in a tape recorder, during the visit.

Bingham disappeared the day of the violence and remained a fugitive until he surrendered in 1984. He worked as a house painter in Paris under an assumed identity during most of those 13 years.

Score to Settle Alleged

Chief defense counsel Gerald Schwartzbach said he thought the jury’s interest in Rubiaco’s testimony was sparked by his closing argument, in which he alleged that Rubiaco had a score to settle with Jackson from the days when both were at Soledad Prison. Jackson was facing a murder charge for the slaying of a Soledad guard when he was killed.

Schwartzbach noted that it has been about two months since Rubiaco testified.

“My assumption is that they just wanted their memories refreshed,” he said.

Bingham, his attorneys and a bevy of supporters waited in the hallway outside the courtroom all afternoon for a verdict that did not come.

“Every minute they’re out makes me more nervous,” Schwartzbach said.

Jurors seemed to place special emphasis on a fingerprint found on the pistol after order was restored at the prison. The print never was identified, even though it was compared to millions of fingerprints from nationwide law enforcement computers as well as to samples of prints from Bingham, inmates and guards.

Testimony on Fingerprint

The jurors asked Monday to hear testimony about the efforts to identify the print. They also requested a rehearing of Rubiaco’s testimony.

Schwartzbach’s contentions would give Rubiaco a major role in a conspiracy that the defense says set up Jackson to be killed. Schwartzbach says prison officials led Jackson to believe that he could succeed in an escape so he could be killed in the attempt.

When the actual attempt resulted in the guards’ death, investigators picked Bingham for the scapegoat and manipulated evidence to cover up the truth, the defense contends.

Boren has maintained that Bingham was the only person with the opportunity to provide the pistol to Jackson, in the relative privacy of the visiting room.