SLO jury deadlocks again in case of SLO County man accused of home invasion sex assault
After two days of deliberations, a San Luis Obispo County jury told a judge on Thursday it could not agree whether an Atascadero man attempted to sexually assault a 20-year-old Cal Poly student in her San Luis Obispo apartment during a home invasion.
It’s the second time local jurors have disagreed over whether 41-year-old Tyrone Anderson, as San Luis Obispo police and county prosecutors allege, attacked the woman in December 2017 in an attempted rape and burglary in which the alleged victim was bound with tape.
Anderson’s defense claimed he had entered the first-floor apartment off Foothill Boulevard through an unlocked front door looking to steal valuables, when the woman emerged from a bedroom.
The woman testified that her attacker, who was in the house when she emerged from a shower, rubbed lubrication on her body and tried to sexually assault her on her bed.
She was not physically injured in the incident, the aftermath of which was shown to jurors through disturbing officer body camera footage that showed the naked and crying woman opening the door for officers with tape still on her wrists, ankles and mouth.
Anderson was not identified as a suspect until five months later.
He faced charges of assault with intent to commit rape, sexual battery, and first-degree burglary related to the 2017 incident.
If convicted of the charge of assault with intent to commit rape during the commission of a burglary, Anderson faced the possibility of life in state prison.
Instead, jurors deadlocked 11-1 on that charge, and split 8-3 with one juror undecided on the sexual battery charge.
There was disagreement as of late Friday between the defense and prosecution as to whether jurors leaned in favor of guilt or not guilty verdicts; court staff could not verify that information by the end of the day.
Because they did not come to agreement on the first count, jurors also could not convict Anderson of the residential burglary charge, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Lisa Muscari, who prosecuted the case.
The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office could retry the case a third time.
Muscari said Friday that no decision has yet been made on how the District Attorney’s Office intends to proceed, but a status conference is scheduled for Sept. 7.
Anderson, who has remained in San Luis Obispo County Jail custody since his arrest, has yet to be sentenced to roughly four years for assault and attempted kidnapping convictions from his first trial in March 2020 related to crimes against a second woman in a separate incident.
Anderson was arrested following a May 2018 daytime vehicle collision in Atascadero. He had to be pulled away by a bystander from attacking a female motorist, who was also a former co-worker with whom he had a previous sexual encounter.
In his first trial, Anderson faced six felonies related to the two separate incidents.
Though jurors found Anderson guilty of assault likely to inflict great bodily injury and attempted kidnapping related to the Atascadero assault, they unanimously disagreed with the District Attorney’s Office that that the kidnapping also was an attempt to rape the woman.
And jurors deadlocked 10-1 in favor of guilt, with one juror undecided, on the three charges related to the alleged assault of the Cal Poly student on Foothill Boulevard.
After prosecutors decided to retry the charges related to the student’s alleged sex assault, the second trial began on July 27.
Anderson’s attorney says he’s ‘a thief who got in over his head’
Though Anderson maintained during his first trial that he had nothing to do with the Foothill Boulevard home invasion, investigators since discovered GPS evidence on Anderson’s phone that showed he was in the area of the apartment complex.
During the second trial, he admitted entering the apartment through an unlocked front door to steal valuables but denied attempting to sexually assault the woman.
Patrick Fisher, his defense attorney, described his client in closing arguments Tuesday as “a thief who got in over his head” who made the “stupid” decision to enter the apartment through an unlocked front door.
Fisher argued to the jury that his client bound the woman’s wrists, ankles and mouth with tape to give him time to flee the apartment complex.
As in the first trial, there was debate over the alleged victim’s credibility and Muscari explained to the jury that the trial was not a “popularity contest” about the woman, who delivered emotional testimony in both trials.
The woman claimed that her attacker rubbed lubricant on her body during the alleged rape attempt before fleeing. But during a sexual assault exam, there was no testing for the existence of any substance.
The woman was also left alone in a room to use a swab, raising chain-of-custody issues.
On Sept. 7, Anderson is scheduled to be formally sentenced to roughly four years for the May 2018 assault on the woman in Atascadero.
At that time, the two women in the case will have the opportunity to deliver victim impact statements, Muscari said.
This story was originally published August 20, 2021 at 5:14 PM.
