Juries convict one defendant, deadlock on other in gang-related murder trial

ADRIAN — One defendant was convicted on all counts Thursday afternoon while a mistrial was declared for the other defendant in a gang-related, murder conspiracy trial in Lenawee County Circuit Court.

Count Tereso the Almighty Trevino, 40, who changed his name from Terry Lynn Trevino several years ago, was found guilty of all four charges against him: open murder, conspiracy to commit open murder, solicitation of open murder and gang membership felonies in relation to the 2019 murder of Christopher Dickerson, 27, of Weston. A mistrial was declared for Trevino's co-defendant, Andrew Erin Cecil, after the jury considering the case against him could not reach a unanimous verdict.

Regarding the charge of open murder, the jury found Trevino guilty of second-degree murder, which is punishable by up to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The open murder charge allowed the juries to determine the degree of murder.

There was no decision reached by Cecil's jury. After nearly two full days of both juries deliberating, the jury was unable to come to a unanimous verdict of guilty or not guilty. Cecil, 31, was charged with the same charges as Trevino in relation to Dickerson’s murder on Jan. 21, 2019.

“I think the jury spent a lot of time deliberating. They reached a verdict and the verdict they reached was the one that we have to respect,” Trevino’s special public defender Jim Daly said. “The prosecution tried a great case. They tried an excellent case, and I thought that we had a chance to overcome the burden, but we didn’t. (Trevino) is fortunate that he got second-degree rather than first. Second-degree had never been offered (as a plea). It’s better than nothing.”

Trevino is scheduled to be sentenced June 16.

Because Cecil's jury was deadlocked and stated it had been deadlocked since deliberations began Wednesday morning, Circuit Judge Michael R. Olsaver and the trial attorneys agreed to declare a mistrial in Cecil’s case. Cecil will appear back in court June 7 for a pretrial hearing.

“I don’t think it would appropriate to push them (Cecil’s jury) any further,” said Lenawee County Prosecutor Jackie Wyse during discussions about the deadlocked jury.

Cecil’s jury told Olsaver it was deadlocked without a unanimous ruling at 10:25 a.m. Thursday. Olsaver brought the jury into the courtroom to explain the possibilities of coming to a unanimous verdict. By reasoning the matter out, he said, differences of opinion could be resolved.

Still in deliberations, the jury returned to the courtroom shortly after 1 p.m. to listen again to the audio recording of phone calls between Cecil and his ex-fiancee Brittnay Lee while Cecil was in the Lenawee County Jail. The calls, which had been played in their entirety during the trial, were from May 2018 and January 2019. In them, Cecil and Lee communicate about several topics, most notably stopping Dickerson from testifying in court against Cecil, who stabbed Dickerson during an altercation May 1, 2018, in an Adrian apartment.

Cecil’s special public defender Stanley Sala was adamant throughout the trial of Cecil’s innocence in Dickerson’s death, because he never used the words “kill” or “murder” when talking about keeping Dickerson from testifying.

It was just after 4 p.m. when Cecil’s jury was called back to the courtroom because it was not making any headway and could not reach a unanimous decision.

The trial began April 6. The jury selection process started April 4 and continued April 5 because two juries had to be selected — one for each defendant.

“I just think the jury had a tough time with this case,” Sala said. “You’re dealing with inmates that are not credible and a phone call that could mean a lot of different things. They (the jury) were not in agreement, which makes sense with the confusion that was in the case. It doesn’t surprise me that it was a deadlocked jury. Somebody might interpret what happened one way and another person would (interpret it) another way. That’s exactly what happened in that jury room. It’s clear that the facts are not beyond a reasonable doubt that Andrew Cecil committed any of these things.”

Trevino, who the prosecution argued was the leader, or the “first,” of the Latin Counts gang in Adrian at the time of Dickerson’s murder, and Cecil, who was incarcerated in the Lenawee County Jail when Dickerson was murdered, were each accused of conspiring to order Dickerson's death. Neither of the defendants were accused of murdering Dickerson, nor did any testimony state they were present at the murder scene.

Dickerson’s death is considered gang related. Witness testimony during the trial stated Trevino to be associated with the Latin Counts and the local leader of the gang. Other witnesses said Cecil and Dickerson were associated with the Counts. Some witnesses said Cecil’s involvement with the Counts was sparse. Dickerson, meanwhile, was said not to have been a member of the gang when he was murdered, but he associated with a number of alleged gang members.

As to Cecil’s ranking within the Latin Counts, witness testimony showed a decision about killing another gang member can only be made through a board meeting or from the leader of the gang. Cecil, Sala said, was never identified as a Latin Counts board member or leader, therefore within the gang he would not have the authority to order murder.

Because Dickerson testified against Cecil in a preliminary examination regarding the May 2018 stabbing, Dickerson was accused of breaking one of the most stringent rules of the Latin Counts: not telling or snitching on another gang member. Punishment for breaking this rule, according to the laws of the Latin Counts, is death or other severe forms of punishment, which can be decided through the board and enforced locally by the gang’s leader.

Conversations about conspiring to harm or kill Dickerson so that he could not testify any further began in the Lenawee County Jail, the prosecution argued, from the summer of 2018 through the day Dickerson was killed, Jan. 21, 2019. Cecil was in jail during that timeframe. Trevino was released from the Lenawee County Jail Nov. 30, 2018. Additional conversations continued outside of the jail.

The two men who have accused each other of killing Dickerson, Austin Richardson and David Taylor, are lodged in jail in relation to Dickerson’s murder and other crimes. They were two of 12 witnesses called to the stand by the prosecution during the trial. Other witnesses consisted of law enforcement officials with the Lenawee County Sheriff’s Office and the Adrian Police Department, incarcerated individuals who have identified with the Latin Counts or were involved with the conversations about stopping Dickerson from testifying, Trevino’s brother and sister-in-law, a Latin Counts expert witness within the United States Department of Homeland Security, the Lenawee County chief medical examiner, and Dickerson’s mother, Tracy Dickerson, who admitted after the verdicts had been reached, “We still have a long way to go.”

“I guess you can say half of my heart is happy,” she said. “It’ll get there someday. It’ll be alright. I feel that.”

Richardson has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Dickerson's death. He is awaiting sentencing. Taylor has been charged with being an accessory after the fact in Dickerson's death. He is accused of disposing of the gun used to shoot Dickerson, saying he sold the gun for methamphetamine. Taylor was also the person who tipped law enforcement to the location of Dickerson’s body, which was recovered from a wooded field near Morenci Feb. 23, 2019, more than one month after the murder.

Tracy Dickerson reported her son missing Feb. 18, 2019, five days before his body was recovered.

There are only four people to blame for her son’s death, she said, “and we took one of them off the streets today.”

Wyse said the prosecutor’s office is ready to head back to trial in June.

“I think justice was partially served,” she commented. “Both juries had a hard task, and all I can say is, we are going to do it again.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Juries convict 1 defendant, deadlock on other in 2019 murder trial