By Brian Anderson
Valley Times

Sept. 18, 2001

OAKLAND — Jurors will continue Wednesday discussing whether a former San Ramon man convicted of killing a Pittsburg father during an armored car robbery should spend the rest of his life behind bars or face a state executioner.

The nearly four-year-old saga of Thomas Franklin Wheelock, 24, neared the end Monday as lawyers on both sides pitched their final penalty phase arguments before jurors began brief deliberations, then left for the day.

While prosecutor Jim Anderson described Wheelock to the five-man, seven-woman jury as a "greedy, selfish coward" whose only desire was to take an easy path through life, defense attorney Bob Mertens cautioned jurors to avoid crafting narrow judgments.

Wheelock had qualities worth preserving, Mertens said. But Anderson told jurors that they had only one true choice -- sentence Wheelock to die.

"Now, there's no question about it that this was a planned killing," Anderson said as he flashed crime scene photos of a lifeless Rodrigo Cortez sprawled in an abandoned armored car. "Rodrigo Cortez was a dead man when Thomas Franklin Wheelock came to work that day."

In his signature aggressive style, Anderson characterized Wheelock as a "pistol-packing thug" who could have avoided the "thrill kill" by instead tying up Cortez, 30, his armored car partner, or simply wounding the man.

Anderson told jurors that their search for mitigating factors -- a point of law in death penalty cases -- would ultimately reach the final conclusion that Wheelock must die.

"When he assassinated Rodrigo Cortez on that altar of greed, he became his judge, jury and executioner," Anderson said.

Mertens told jurors, however, that Wheelock was a caring young man whose family loved him, despite having raised him in troubling conditions. Wheelock had long battled attention deficit disorder before the killing Nov. 24, 1997, and was a slow learner in a family of overachievers who said he was a "retard" and "stupid," Mertens said.

"Tom Wheelock's life was in shambles just before he killed Rodrigo Cortez," Mertens said. "After years of failing with family relationships, years of struggling with school ... Tom Wheelock finally snapped."

Jurors convicted Wheelock earlier this month of first-degree murder and killing Cortez during the course of a robbery, a special circumstance they are now considering in deciding whether Wheelock should be sent to death row.

The former California High School student shot Cortez three times before ditching the armored car they were guarding behind a San Ramon auto parts store and fleeing with nearly $300,000. He was arrested a few days later in Utah where he told authorities in taped interviews that he expected to get the death penalty.

But defense attorneys said Wheelock killed Cortez only after the man had berated him during their cash runs, a mitigating point that should factor into whether jurors decide on a death sentence or life behind bars with no possibility of parole.

"You have heard the uncontradicted evidence of this case that Tom was under extreme depression at the time of the killing," said assistant public defender Michael Ogul, adding that the killing resulted from a "spontaneous, emotional explosion."

Jurors are off Tuesday in observance of Rosh Hashanah.