Jury Mulls Death Penalty in Decades-Old Glendale Murder

The jury that convicted a man -- already in prison for one murder -- of murdering a young woman during a rape in Glendale about 37 years ago is due back in court Monday for the trial's penalty phase, when the panel will be asked to recommend a sentence of death or life in prison without parole for the defendant.

Darrel Mark Gurule, 57, was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder for the shooting death of 23-year-old Barbara Ballman, whose naked body was found in the early morning hours of Sept. 21, 1979, inside her Volkswagen sedan, which was parked across from Edison Elementary School . The criminal complaint alleges she was killed on or about Sept. 20, 1979.

Jurors found true the special circumstance allegations of murder during the commission of a rape and murder with a prior conviction but deadlocked on a third special circumstance allegation -- murder during the course of a robbery.

Glendale police said semen evidence was recovered from the victim, who had been shot in the abdomen, but DNA analysis was not available at the time.

In 2009, Glendale police re-opened an investigation into Ballman's killing and submitted the semen evidence to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's crime lab, police said.

The DNA was linked to Gurule, who was 19 at the time of the killing and who has been serving a life prison sentence since 1987 for the kidnap-murder of a man in a case detectives believe was a drug deal gone wrong, according to police. Jurors are expected to hear more about the prior murder case during the trial's penalty phase.

Gurule was also been convicted of attacking a woman in Los Angeles in 1977, according to police.