Still no verdict in retrial of accused police killer

The jury in the second murder trial of Wilfredo Santiago in the execution-style slaying of Police Officer Thomas Trench in 1985 has completed three full days of deliberations without reaching a verdict.

The jurors, who resume their work this morning, have not been in the courtroom since they got the case late Monday.

Prosecutors allege that Santiago, harboring a grudge against another police officer, shot Trench, 43, in the face and neck as he sat in a patrol car at 17th and Spring Garden Streets in the early morning of May 28, 1985. No physical evidence or eyewitnesses linked Santiago, now 44, to Trench's killing, and the prosecution's case has depended on circumstantial evidence.

The officer's family members attended the trial every day and they have been waiting at the courthouse for the verdict.

- Joseph A. Gambardello