BARNSTABLE - Three weeks ago, a member of the jury that convicted a black trash hauler of raping and murdering a white fashion writer on Cape Cod took the witness stand and denied making racist remarks about blacks during deliberations or holding bigoted views.
Yesterday, the extraordinary hearing to determine whether racial bias necessitated a new trial took a bizarre turn when the juror's 74-year-old great-aunt took the stand and said he lied.
In nearly an hour on the stand in Barnstable Superior Court, Delainda Julia Miranda said she had heard her grand-nephew - Eric "Billy" Gomes, a dark-skinned Cape Verdean - often make disparaging remarks about blacks similar to those he allegedly uttered to other jurors in 2006 as they deliberated the fate of Christopher M. McCowen. Indeed, he repeatedly denied being black, she said, even though she told him he was.
"He doesn't like blacks," she said under questioning by McCowen's lawyer Robert A. George. She quoted Gomes as saying that "all blacks do is come down here and get in trouble, do drugs." She added that Gomes used a racially charged term for blacks and said they "don't like to work, and that all blacks like to do is kill people."
Gomes was one of 12 jurors questioned by Judge Gary A. Nickerson on Jan. 10 and 11 about possible racial bias in jury deliberations. After reading about Gomes's testimony in a Cape Cod newspaper on Jan. 11, Miranda said, she went to the courthouse to share her grand-nephew's views with a Truro author who is writing a book on the case. The author, Peter Manso, in turn, told McCowen's lawyer, who interviewed Miranda and filed an affidavit with the court a week later.
Under cross-examination by Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe yesterday, Miranda conceded that she had not been involved in the jury deliberations and had not seen Gomes testify last month.
She also said that she herself had angrily used the same racial epithet that she attributed to Gomes after a man made an unwanted sexual advance toward her foster daughter about five years ago. Nonetheless, she said, she could serve on a jury fairly.
But she said the context of Gomes's alleged use of the epithet and hers were different. His comments, she said, reflected genuine racism.
"I love him," she said. "He's a good person, but I didn't think his words were good."
Gomes, who works at Amvets Post 70 in Falmouth, declined to comment last night.
Miranda's remarks concluded a three-part hearing during which Nickerson weighed testimony from her, a dozen jurors, and an expert witness on racism within juries as part of a defense motion for a new trial for McCowen.
McCowen was convicted in November 2006 of raping and fatally stabbing Christa Worthington in January 2002 at her secluded bungalow in the affluent beach town of Truro and is serving a life sentence.
Days after the verdict, three jurors contacted George to say there had been racial bias during deliberations. Two quoted Gomes as saying he did not like blacks because they cause trouble and that he considered himself white and preferred to socialize with whites.
Legal specialists have said that Nickerson's decision to interview the former jurors was highly unusual because judges typically avoid prying into deliberations after a verdict. But federal rules of evidence and case law make a notable exception for extraneous racist remarks, particularly if the comments intimidate jurors and prevent them from voting their conscience.
Jeffrey B. Abramson, a former Middlesex County prosecutor and a specialist on juries who teaches at Brandeis University, said yesterday that he was troubled by the decision to put Miranda on the stand to determine whether Gomes told the truth.
"I don't believe I have ever heard of a judge going to this length to essentially call a collateral witness," said Abramson, who is not involved in the case. "It means we now have a minitrial within a trial. We have a particular juror on trial."
He said the hearing may cause prospective jurors to fear that "they open themselves to an entire character investigation after the fact depending on how they vote and depending on whom they may have offended in life."
After Miranda's testimony yesterday, Nickerson heard about an hour of arguments from George and O'Keefe, who disagreed about whether the evidence necessitated a new trial.
George said all the evidence - including testimony by jurors that there was a confrontation in the jury room after one juror referred to McCowen as a "big black guy" - indicated that McCowen did not have an impartial jury.
But O'Keefe read aloud excerpts of George's questions and opening statement at McCowen's trial and said George had made the defendant's race an issue by accusing police of targeting the defendant because he is black.
Both sides are to submit briefs summarizing their cases to the court within 30 days. George said he expected Nickerson to rule on McCowen's motion for a new trial within 60 days.
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.
