DUBLIN — A mistrial was declared Tuesday within the homicide trial of Nolan Hurd, who tearfully took the stand and declared his innocence final month amid allegations that he fatally shot his longtime girlfriend at a Fremont resort.
A jury acquitted Hurd, 25, of first-degree homicide within the January 2022 dying of Nikha Marcella DeGuzman, who was shot behind the top after neighbors reported an argument of their resort room. The jury ended up deadlocked on the lesser expenses of second-degree homicide and involuntary manslaughter.
A ballot of the jury confirmed that 9 jurors favored discovering Hurd responsible of second-degree homicide, whereas eight thought he was responsible of involuntary manslaughter, based on the Alameda County District Legal professional’s Workplace.
The case revolved round a central query: Was DeGuzman gunned down by her longtime boyfriend the night time of Jan. 27, 2022, or did she unexpectedly flip a .40-caliber gun on herself?
The trial ran weeks longer than anticipated, and it ended with Hurd taking the unusual step of testifying on his personal behalf.
Breaking down in tears whereas on the stand, Hurd described his shock at rising from the resort’s lavatory that night time to see DeGuzman, 20, holding the gun and refusing to make eye contact with him, all whereas her eyes have been crammed with tears, based on courtroom testimony.
Hurd mentioned he tried to disarm DeGuzman, who had beforehand been identified with main depressive dysfunction and had a historical past of suicide makes an attempt when she was 11 to 14 years previous, based on Hurd’s lawyer.
“His only thought is ‘I’m going to take action, going to try to get the gun away from her,” mentioned Hurd’s lawyer, Adam Pennella, throughout closing arguments final week. He described Hurd scrambling to name 911 and pleading with dispatchers to ship assist shortly, all whereas attempting to maintain DeGuzman from transferring.
“These are not actions of a guilty man — these are actions of someone who found themselves in the circumstances of an absolutely tragic event,” Pennella added. “Of course, his actions were not perfect. But under these kinds of circumstances, would yours?”
The 911 name made by Hurd a minute or two after the taking pictures took middle stage in the course of the trial, with Hurd’s lawyer presenting a digitally enhanced model the place DeGuzman may very well be heard saying “I shot myself.”
“That call alone — in and of itself — is reasonable doubt,” Pennella mentioned.
But prosecutors pointed to testimony from DeGuzman’s family and friends that alleged a “toxic” relationship between the 2, the place Hurd used worry and even bodily violence to bend DeGuzman to his will, based on Alameda County prosecutor Michiye Vella.
DeGuzman died, Vella added, as a result of “she wasn’t going with whatever his program was that night.” The prosecutor even questioned why no witnesses noticed Hurd with tears in his eyes instantly after the taking pictures.
Hurd was the one one with gunshot residue on his arms after the taking pictures, Vella mentioned. And the trajectory of the deadly bullet — which entered by means of the decrease again left facet of DeGuzman’s head and exited out the conch of her left ear — eradicated the potential of DeGuzman taking pictures herself, she added. That’s as a result of DeGuzman was right-handed.
“She could not have shot herself in that manner,” Vella instructed the jury. “Not with this gun, which you’ll feel how heavy and large it is while you’re deliberating.”
She additionally pointed to prior incidents allegedly involving Hurd, searching for to point out a sample of violence. The prosecutor claimed Hurd beat DeGuzman after a site visitors crash earlier of their relationship, and that he beat a lady in a earlier relationship — allegations that Hurd’s lawyer strenuously denied.
“Make no mistake about it: The defendant committed the cold-blooded murder of Nikha DeGuzman,” Vella instructed the jury throughout closing arguments. Look no additional, she mentioned, than the truth that he had a loaded gun of their room on the Good Nite Inn.
Left undecided on the trial have been expenses that Hurd picked up after the taking pictures, whereas he was being held on the Santa Rita Jail. Prosecutors have accused him of stabbing one other inmate in 2024, in addition to making do-it-yourself knife on the facility earlier this 12 months.
