Jury Finds Lovelace Guilty Of Murder Jurors Take Two Hours To Reach Their Verdict

The guilty verdict was expected. The surprise was it took jurors more than two hours to convict confessed killer Faron Lovelace of murder Thursday.

Lovelace, who refused court-appointed attorneys and defended himself, spent hours telling jurors how he killed fellow white supremacist Jeremy Scott. It was the jury’s duty to convict him of the 1995 murder, Lovelace said in his closing statement to the court.

“Sometimes you put an innocent man on death row. In this case you won’t do that,” he said. “I’m guilty. Thank you all for being here. I’m sorry to tie you all up.”

Lovelace, who has described himself as a racist, nodded his head in agreement as the court clerk read the guilty verdict. He raised his eyebrows, seeming surprised, when they also found him guilty of kidnapping Scott.

Lovelace, 40, faces the death penalty, which he requested when he agreed to tell authorities about the murder. Scott was shot once in the back of the head with a .38-caliber pistol. Lovelace fired at Scott when he turned his back to urinate in the woods near his remote home north of Sandpoint.

At first Lovelace said he executed his friend fearing he would tell of plans to kill local elected officials. Lovelace later said he played “Robin Hood” and was trying to save Scott’s wife. He believed Scott wanted to kill his wife and flee with their 19-month-old son.

Dennis Charney, deputy state attorney general, called the four-day trial the most bizarre case he’s ever seen.

“Nothing I learned in five years as a prosecutor could have ever prepared me for this,” he said.

Lovelace helped convict himself. He insisted he appear in jail clothes, ankle and belly chains. He never denied his guilt, and tried to give authorities more evidence to use against him. Without Lovelace’s confession it was unlikely the murder would have ever been discovered, Charney said.

“This is a done deal. He is a first-degree murderer,” he said. “He shows a reckless disregard for human life. This is a man who engages in hate crimes.”

Charney said Lovelace burglarized a home because the owner was a homosexual and robbed a Washington couple because he thought they were Jewish. Lovelace has already spent 17 years in prison and was a federal fugitive before being arrested near Priest Lake last August.

Jurors were befuddled by the soft-spoken and articulate Lovelace. Several members of the panel, who did not want their names used, called the trial a “sham,” a waste of time and money.

“If he confessed to the crime and said he was guilty, why did we even have a trial,” said one juror. “First he says he wants to die, then he wants to sit in prison. He didn’t even have to admit this murder. I just don’t see his point.”

Even though the case seemed clear-cut, jurors took time to review transcripts of Lovelace’s confessions and look at the evidence. One member actually wavered about Lovelace’s guilt at the start of deliberations.

“Really, we had no choice,” one woman on the jury said. “It would bother me if I had a little doubt in my mind, but I don’t have that. He did it and will have to pay the price,” she said. “I feel sorry for him, for people who throw their lives away like that. But he has to be punished.”

Prosecutors said it appeared at some point Lovelace changed his mind about wanting to die. He denied he was a racist and recanted his story about holding Scott prisoner before killing him. The jury still found Lovelace guilty of kidnapping along with first degree murder.

The kidnapping charge will help the judge decide whether Lovelace should die for the crime, Charney said.

“I think he (Lovelace) is very, very scared of the federal (prison) system and wanted a quick execution,” he said.

“Somewhere along the way he changed his mind about dying and tried to get out of the kidnapping charge. I’m not sure what punishment he wants now. He clearly didn’t manipulate this jury.”

Lovelace will not be sentenced until November.

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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHAT’S NEXT Lovelace is scheduled to be sentence in November. He may face the death penalty.