MAN CONVICTED OF BEATING COUPLE

A Santa Clara County jury found an 18-year-old guilty Friday of attempting
to kill a Mountain View couple and rob them of their medicinal marijuana
plants.

Michael Anthony Jordan of Santa Clara was arrested May 1 with five other
teens after beating John Barrymore III and his wife, Rebecca, with a
trailer hitch wrapped in a sock. Barrymore is actress Drew Barrymore's
half-brother.

John Barrymore III had a prescription to use the approximately 20 plants at
his home to treat migraines.

His injuries required six hours of brain surgery. Although he and his wife
have since recovered, Rebecca Barrymore still has trouble lifting her
daughter because of blows to her arm, said deputy district attorney James
Leonard, who prosecuted the case.

Of the others arrested, four were younger than 18 and were charged in
juvenile court. The other, 18-year-old Jeremy Solito, of San Jose, pleaded
no contest to attempted robbery and assault Nov. 27, and testified against
Jordan in the trial.

In addition to two counts of attempted murder, jurors convicted Jordan of
residential burglary, first-degree robbery, assault with a deadly weapon,
and possession of a "slungshot" -- a heavy object with a flexible handle.

Jurors did not believe that the attempts on the Barrymores' lives were
premeditated and, in making that finding, spared Jordan from the
possibility of life in prison, Leonard said. "They didn't have enough to
say that beyond a reasonable doubt, he had weighed the consequences,"
Leonard said.

Jordan faces a maximum sentence of 18 years in prison. On hearing the
verdict, he was "elated" to not have been condemned for life, said his
attorney, John Cahners.

"He felt very remorseful about his conduct," Cahners said. "He had
expressed that from the beginning."

The Barrymores were not in court when the verdict was read Friday and could
not be reached for comment.

Jordan is scheduled to be sentenced May 16.