
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 4, 1990                   TAG: 9007040194
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

JURY ACQUITS MAN OF BENSONHURST SLAYING

A sharply divided jury acquitted a young white man Tuesday of intentionally murdering a black teen-ager in a racial attack in Bensonhurst. But it failed to resolve a second murder count and a riot charge against him.

The jury, in its ninth day of deliberations, convicted John Vento of two counts of unlawful imprisonment and four counts of menacing for his role in the attack that inflamed racial passions in New York City.

Two other young whites have been convicted in the assault on 16-year-old Yusuf Hawkins, who was shot to death Aug. 23. Hawkins had come to the predominantly white Brooklyn neighborhood to buy a used car.

Vento, who reneged on an immunity deal to testify against his co-defendants, faces a September retrial on the unresolved charges, including a charge of murder by depraved indifference, prosecutors said.

- Associated Press

by CNB