The trial of NYPD hero Jonathan Diller’s accused killer was thrown into chaos Wednesday when the jury foreman claimed the panel had acquitted the defendant of first-degree murder — and one of the jurors denied it to the judge.
Diller’s widow and mother let out gasps and wails in the Queens courtroom when the foreman announced an acquittal for suspect Guy Rivera on the top count.
The jury had begun deliberating Rivera’s fate hours earlier and then entered the courtroom late in the afternoon, when the foreman told the judge they had reached a not-guilty verdict on the first-degree murder rap.
The jury had found Rivera guilty of the rest of the charges against him: aggravated manslaughter in the first degree, attempted murder in the first degree of Diller’s partner, and two weapons counts, the foreman said…