May 26, 2011|By LARRY WELBORNSANTA ANA – A mistrial was declared Thursday after a jury announced it was hopelessly deadlocked in the attempted murder and mayhem trial of two men and a woman accused of conspiring to kill a Fountain Valley man with a machete.

An eight-woman, four-man jury in Superior Court Judge Richard F. Toohey's courtroom deliberated for about two days before announcing it could not reach a verdict on any defendant in the March 3, 2008, predawn attack on Frank Richard Sharpski, 49.

He was seriously injured when he was slashed by a man in dark clothing who came out of the darkness and started whacking away with a steel machete when Sharpski left his apartment to go to work as a FedEx delivery truck driver.

Deputy District Attorney Lynda Fernandez contended during the two-week trial that Mary Katheryn Sharpski, now 48, wanted her husband of 18 years killed because of his emotional and physical abuse.

Fernandez argued that Mary Sharpski conspired with her boyfriend, Michael Calvin Shores II, 40, an unemployed security guard, to murder her husband. With Frank Sharpski out of the way, the couple could move to Wyoming and live together, Fernandez contended.

The pair enlisted Antonio Cinco Ortega, 22, to attack Frank Sharpski with a machete, Fernandez argued to the jury, and promised him $5,000 to do the job. Ortega, who worked as a butcher at a Huntington Beach grocery store, was a close friend of Shores' who was collaborating with him on a fantasy book at the time of the attack, the prosecutor said.

Each of the three defendents was charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, mayhem and a sentencing enhancement for great bodily injury. Ortega faced an additional sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly.

Jurors said later that they deadlocked 9-3 in favor of guilty on all charges against Ortega, but were split 6-6 on the charges against Shores. Jurors said they voted 7-5 for not guilty on the charges against Mary Sharpski.

Toohey scheduled a hearing July 1 to select a date for a retrial. Fernandez said she will definitely seek to retry Ortega on all counts. She claimed in the first trial that DNA evidence linked him to the attack on Frank Sharpski.

http://articles.ocregister.com/2011-05- ... of-two-men