Stewart jurors ‘sure they made right decision’

JURORS in the Martha Stewart trial said they felt pity for the fallen celebrity homemaker as her verdict was read, but that ultimately they were sure they had made the right decision.

"I choked up and I felt my eyes tearing and I was very relieved the judge read the verdict, because I wasn't sure if I would have to do that," said jury forewoman Rosemary McMahon.

Ms McMahon said she looked at Stewart briefly after the verdict was read, and "that's when I just realised I was very upset about it and I turned back and looked at the judge".

"It was a terrible thing to happen to any person," said juror Amos Mellinger.

Despite their sympathy for Stewart, the jury's decision to convict her of lying about a stock sale was made "after careful consideration of everything that we had", Ms McMahon said. "We did what we had to do."

Stewart, who could face up to 20 years in prison, was expected to report yesterday to a probation office for processing related to her June 17 sentence.

Other jurors said Stewart's assistant Ann Armstrong, who reluctantly testified that Stewart tried to alter a phone record of a message from her stockbroker, was the key witness leading them to the domestic diva's conviction.

Ms Armstrong testified that Stewart sat down at Ms Armstrong's desk to change a message from her broker, Peter Bacanovic, that informed her that he thought the ImClone stock price would start falling.

"She ultimately gave the testimony that was going to bring Martha down. That was a very important piece," said juror Chappell Hartridge.

The jurors also said they believed other key prosecution witnesses in the case against Stewart, including Bacanovic's assistant Douglas Faneuil, and were puzzled that the defence spent less than an hour presenting its case after weeks of prosecution testimony.

The defence team told jurors, "Don't believe it. It didn't happen, so don't believe it," Ms McMahon said.

The eight women and four men deliberated for 12 hours over three days before convicting Stewart last Friday on all four counts against her conspiracy, obstruction and two counts of making false statements.

Both she and Bacanovic, who was convicted of obstruction, making false statements, conspiracy and perjury, have vowed to appeal.

Stewart was convicted of lying to cover up the reason she sold 3,928 shares of ImClone Systems stock on December 27, 2001 avoiding a hefty loss when the company announced bad news the next day.

Prosecutors had offered Stewart a chance last April to plead guilty to just one of the four charges against her making a false statement in exchange for a probation sentence, Newsweek magazine reported on Sunday.

But a defence source told the magazine that prosecutors could not guarantee that Stewart would avoid jail time completely and Stewart refused the offer.