Juror says he felt pressure to change vote

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — A juror who helped convict a black man of fatally shooting a white teenager said he felt pressure from other jurors and the judge to change his vote to guilty during a marathon deliberating session over the weekend.

The jury convicted John White of second-degree manslaughter in the August 2006 shooting of 17-year-old Daniel Cicciaro Jr. White, 54, remains free on bail until sentencing, when he faces a prison term of five to 15 years. He plans to appeal.

The case drew national attention after the defense argued that White had feared a “lynch mob” had come to attack his family when a group of angry white teenagers gathered outside his home. The teens had come to fight White’s son.

Juror Francois Larche, who is white, said he and another holdout juror changed their votes Saturday evening after enduring “a lot of psychological tactics” from fellow jurors on an unusual weekend session ordered by the judge over jurors’ protests.

Larche, 46, said the stress had become unbearable.

“It was a huge burden to bear,” Larche told the New York Post in Monday’s editions. “It got heated. Some of the men lost their cool. I took a lot of heat.”

Larche’s home telephone number was out of service Monday.