Jury begins deliberations in prostitute slaying trial

A Chesterfield judge this morning ruled that a jury must find Albert L. Perry Jr. either innocent or guilty of first-degree murder in the death of an escort service prostitute almost two years ago.

The jury of three men and nine women began deliberations at 11:05 a.m., tasked with reviewing four days of trial material, nearly 150 exhibits and some five hours of taped police interviews with Perry.

Circuit Judge Timothy J. Hauler rejected a defense plea that a lesser verdict of second-degree murder could be considered by the panel.

The judge sided with prosecution arguments that evidence in the case pointed to a malicious, premeditated crime and not an an act of passion without forethought.

Zaundra Zaneta Gray-Stofel, 40, was found strangled to death in a stairwell of a Chesterfield motel Nov. 30, 2007, near a room that she and Perry had shared earlier that morning.