SANTA ANA – A former police officer sat with his head bowed Monday as an Orange County jury found him not guilty of second-degree murder in the death of a homeless man during a 2011 encounter captured on videotape.

Manuel Anthony Ramos, who was a Fullerton police officer for 10 years, then clasped his hands, wiped tears from his eyes and hugged his attorney as the jury also found him not guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Kelly Thomas.

Some of the more than 100 spectators cried when the verdicts were announced after seven hours of deliberations. But some – relatives, friends and supporters of Thomas – gasped. One spectator yelled, “No!”

And Ron Thomas, the homeless man’s father, sighed several times as the verdicts of not guilty rolled in, and then stood up and said: “What’s wrong with these people?”

The same jury of eight women and four men also acquitted former Cpl. Jay Cicinelli, Ramos’ former colleague, who was charged with involuntary manslaughter and assault under color of authority for his role on July 5, 2011, in the altercation with Thomas.

Cicinelli covered his face as his verdicts were being announced. When the final “not guilty” was read, his attorney, Michael Schwartz, slammed his hands on the counsel table twice, then grabbed Cicinelli in a bear hug.

Ramos, 39, and Cicinelli, 41, were fired by the Fullerton Police Department a year after the encounter with Thomas in the downtown parking lot of the Fullerton Transportation Center. A makeshift shrine with paper hearts and flowers still stands near the spot of the struggle. About 25 supporters gathered at the shrine an hour after the verdicts were announced, a crowd that grew into the evening.

About 40 Kelly Thomas supporters also gathered outside the courthouse after the verdicts were read, waving signs at passing cars and shouting chants. Some drivers honked back.

In a news conference later, John Barnett, Ramos’ attorney, said he expected the not guilty verdicts.

“These peace officers were doing their job,” Barnett said. “They operated as they were trained, and they had no malice in their hearts. They were not out to get somebody that night. They were working … and they committed no crime.”

District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said he felt he did the right thing in filing the case and taking it to trial.

“I’d do the same thing again,” Rackauckas said. “This was a case that I always thought needed to go to the jury.”

Rackauckas also said the case against the third officer, Joseph Wolfe, who was indicted by the Orange County grand jury in 2012 on charges of involuntary manslaughter and use of excessive force, will be dismissed.

“I don’t intend to proceed with another trial when there’s an acquittal on these officers,” Rackauckas said.

Kelly Thomas’ mother, Cathy, was teary-eyed and upset after the verdict. “They’re free to go while my son is dead,” she said.

Glenda Dieball of Placentia, who is Thomas’ grandmother, said she was shocked by the verdicts. “I can’t believe it,” she said. “It’s another O.J. (Simpson) situation. They are guilty as hell, but nobody does nothing about it. He wasn’t doing nothing but sitting there.”

An FBI spokeswoman said late Monday that agents will take another look at the evidence in Thomas’ death to determine whether further investigation is warranted at the federal level. In 2011, the FBI opened an investigation to determine whether Thomas’ civil rights were violated during the altercation with Fullerton police officers, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

PUBLIC OUTCRY

The homeless man’s death on July 10, 2011, created a public outcry after a hospital-bed photo of Thomas – his face unrecognizable under the bruises, gauze and a tube running from his mouth through his ruffled hair and beard – was published on websites, in newspapers and on television news shows.

Crowds protested outside Fullerton City Hall for weeks. The police chief suddenly took a medical retirement. Three pro-police council members were recalled. And three officers, including Ramos and Cicinelli, were charged with crimes and fired.

The jury, empanelled in November, heard from 25 witnesses over a four-week period that began with opening statements Dec. 2 and reviewed more than 150 exhibits, including crime scene and autopsy photos, documents, reports and weapons.

Jurors also listened to two days of opening statements and nearly two and a half days of final arguments, sometimes delivered in front of 120 spectators in Superior Court Judge William Froeberg’s 10th-floor courtroom. They included relatives and friends of Ramos and Cicinelli, and family and supporters of Thomas, many of whom wore ribbons and Kelly Thomas buttons.

Attorneys on both sides focused the jury’s attention on a 33-minute surveillance videotape that captured the encounter from beginning to end. The video was taken by a police camera mounted on a pole on South Pomona Street, across from a bus loading and unloading zone.

The videotape was synchronized with sounds captured by the digital audio recorders attached to the shirts of most of the Fullerton police officers who arrived at the scene after routine questioning of Thomas escalated into violence.

Both sides said there would not have been a prosecution had it not been for the videotape, which was dissected and played in parts over and over again during the five-week trial before Froeberg, one of Orange County’s most experienced judges. And both sides said the videotape provided proof of their positions.

Rackauckas, a former judge, argued that the videotape showed an angry and overzealous Ramos taunting a confused and compliant Thomas, a transient he knew well from seven prior contacts, and then escalating the encounter with an unlawful and brazen threat.

Ramos triggered the fatal beating, Rackauckas insisted, when he snapped on a pair of latex gloves, leaned over to Thomas as he sat on a curb, and threatened, “Now see these fists? They’re getting ready to f— you up.”

FATEFUL STRUGGLE

Thomas was struck with batons, fists and the end of a plastic Taser gun. He continued to resist as first two, then three and ultimately six police officers piled on. The recording devices captured Thomas, screaming, begging, calling out for his father and insisting he couldn’t breathe.

Cicinelli, who lost an eye when he was shot as a police officer in Los Angeles during a traffic stop, was the third officer to join the fray. The video shows that he used his Taser first to jolt Thomas, then as a hammer to smash him in the face.

Rackauckas claimed Cicinelli “wanted to win at all costs” and that the strikes to the face of the struggling Thomas constituted a use of excessive force.

But defense attorney Schwartz insisted that Cicinelli’s response was “measured,” “controlled” and “reasonable” and came only after the stun function of the Taser failed to slow a combative Thomas. Schwartz also argued that Cicinelli resorted to striking Thomas in the face only after Thomas tried to grab his Taser.

“You do not let anyone take your weapon,” he said. “You do not.”

Barnett argued it was a belligerent and uncooperative Thomas who escalated the routine questioning when he refused to identify himself and did not put his hands on his knees when lawfully ordered by Ramos to do so.

All Thomas had to do, Barnett argued, was to follow lawful instructions given by a trained police officer.

The defense attorneys also argued the actions of their clients during the altercation were not substantial factors, as required by law, in Thomas’ death and that he died of a diseased heart weakened by years of methamphetamine abuse.

He died five days later when his life support was terminated. He was 37.

Staff writers Claudia Koerner and Scott Schwebke contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: lwelborn@ocregister.com and vjolly@ocregister.com