A Covina man who worked as a private security guard was convicted Wednesday of second-degree murder stemming from a man’s shooting death during a confrontation inside a Walgreens store in Hollywood nearly six years ago.
Jurors deliberated just over two days before acquitting Donald Vincent Ciota, now 34, of the more serious charge of first-degree murder requested by the prosecution for the Dec. 2, 2018, killing of 21-year-old Jonathan Hart.
Ciota — who has remained behind bars since he was arrested by Los Angeles police 26 days after the shooting — is due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Dec. 9 for sentencing.
He is facing a 15-year-to-life state prison sentence, according to prosecutors.
One of Ciota’s attorneys, Mark Geragos, had asked jurors to acquit his client.
Geragos said after the verdict was read that it was “obvious to me that the pressure of the activists in the courtroom was too much for this jury,” saying that two of the jurors were emotional when polled about the panel’s verdict.
“.. It was hardly a fair trial,” he said, noting that the defense will file a motion seeking a new trial for Ciota.
Deputy District Attorney Justin Ford told jurors during his closing argument that Ciota accused Hart and his friends of shoplifting from the store.
“It’s insulting to accuse someone of stealing when they’re still in the store,” the prosecutor said. “Donald Ciota had made up his mind at this point that something bad was going to happen.”
The prosecutor told the panel that Ciota’s “ego” wouldn’t let him follow a manager’s instructions to let it go, saying “it was the defendant who escalates” the situation at every turn and touched Hart first in an effort to “flex some authority.”
Ford said Hart “reacted to Donald Ciota pushing him unnecessarily” by slapping him in the face, and that the security guard “couldn’t handle the disrespect” and decided to respond by shooting the young man as he turned to run.
In his closing argument, Geragos told jurors that the case was not a murder or a manslaughter, but was instead the “definition of a justifiable homicide.”
The defense attorney told jurors that Ciota had tried to de-escalate the encounter and feared after being hit in the face that he was losing consciousness and might have his gun taken from him.
“There is no crime here. There is a tragedy here,” Geragos said. “Nobody wanted it to end this way, including Mr. Ciota.”
Ciota was arrested “only when there was public pressure” involving the shooting, Geragos told jurors.
In a statement released after the shooting, Walgreens said the company had “extended our deepest and most sincere condolences” to Hart’s family, and noted that as a result of the shooting, “we immediately terminated the security company” that hired the guard.
The company said in the statement that it has “cooperated with authorities and will continue to support their prosecution of this case.”
