Jury Reaches Partial Verdict in Body Parts Case

A jury reached a partial verdict Thursday against a man accused in a lucrative scheme to buy and sell human body parts donated to a University of California medical school.

Jurors in the case of Ernest Nelson of Rancho Cucamonga did not disclose their findings on charges of conspiracy to commit grand theft, grand theft by embezzlement and tax evasion. But they said they are deadlocked on two special enhancement allegations that could add prison time.

Superior Court Judge Curtis Rappe told attorneys to present brief arguments on the allegations in question later Thursday.

Prosecutors said Nelson and Henry Reid, the former director of the Willed Body Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, devised the $1.5 million scam in 1999.

Reid pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit grand theft.