INDIO – With jurors deadlocked, a mistrial was declared Monday in the murder trial of a homeless man charged with the strangulation death of an 85-year-old retired attorney during a sexual encounter in Palm Desert.

The jury convicted Michael Salvador Anunciation, 48, of two counts of misdemeanor petty theft. But the seven-woman, five-man jury deadlocked on a vote of 8-4 in favor of convicting Anunciation of second-degree murder for the killing of Laguna Beach resident Garvin F. Shallenberger in 2006.

Prosecutors are expected to re-try Anunciation, who was originally charged with first-degree murder, on a second-degree murder charge, although an official with the District Attorney's Office said he could not comment because of a gag order imposed by the judge. A hearing is scheduled for Friday, when a new trial date could be set.

If convicted of second-degree murder, Anunciation faces a possible sentence of 15 years to life in state prison.

Jurors announced they were deadlocked shortly after attorneys in the case delivered another round of closing arguments for the panel. The jury indicated Friday they were having difficulty reaching a verdict. Riverside County Superior Court Judge James S. Hawkins gave the prosecutor and defense attorney 15 minutes each Monday to deliver additional closing arguments.

Today marked the panel's fourth day of deliberations.

Shallenberger, a onetime president of the State Bar of California and Orange County Bar Association, kept a mobile home at the Portola Country Club in the 74000 block of Mercury Circle West, where his body was discovered on Sept. 30, 2006.

Jurors said the panel quickly determined that Anunciation was not guilty of first-degree murder, but the panel could not reach a unanimous decision between second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter.

During the second round of closing arguments today, Deputy District Attorney Lisa DiMaria told the jury the defendant should be convicted of second-degree murder due implied malice, because he “deliberately acted with conscious disregard for human life” when he choked Shallenberger.

But Deputy Public Defender David Prendergast told jurors that the prosecution could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not kill as the result of “heat of passion.” Prendergast, who argued that choking Shallenberger was his client's “primal reaction” to the lawyer biting his penis during oral sex, said authorities never took Anunciation to a doctor to determine whether his penis had actually been bitten.

Juror Tim Rockwell, of Palm Springs, said the jury had been “hopelessly deadlocked” for days and that the additional closing arguments today did not help.

Rockwell said his fellow jurors long ago decided against a first-degree murder conviction because they felt there was no premeditation. But he said there was a great deal of dissension between second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter.

Eight jurors voted for second-degree murder while Rockwell and three others voted for voluntary manslaughter, he said.

Rockwell also said that after listening to an interrogation tape of the defendant in which he admits to choking the victim because he bit the defendant's penis during oral sex, Rockwell said all of the jurors believed him.

“We just couldn't agree,” he said, adding that at times it got “ugly.”

Another juror, who would give only her first name of Jennifer, said gender did not play a factor in the jury's decision-making.

“It really wasn't an issue,” she said, adding that at times the debate was heated, “but that happens in the normal course of discussion.”

Both jurors said they were discouraged they could not reach a verdict on the murder charge and said they thought it would be difficult for another jury as well.

Prendergast argued during trial that his client immediately fled the scene of the crime and didn't check to see if Shallenberger was still alive because he wasn't thinking straight and thought that no one would believe what had happened.

But DiMaria insisted there was not “one shred of evidence” that the defendant was bitten by the victim and said Anunciation admitted to a sheriff's investigator that he stole Shallenberger's laptop computer, cordless phones and credit cards, which he used to go on a “shopping spree.”

She called Anunciation a “cold and callous” killer and drug addict.