Jurors took less than an hour Tuesday to find Nhuth Nguyenguilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in an attemptedhit on Yvonne Stern of Bellaire. In closing arguments Tuesday morning, Harris County prosecutorKari Allen told jurors that Nhuth Nguyen was “100 percent guity” ofaggravated assault against Stern during an April 15, 2010 shootingat the luxury Bellaire home she shares with her husband attorneyJeffrey Stern, charged with solicitation of her capital murder. But defense attorney Sam Maida said that there was “no evidence”that Nguyen attempted to kill Yvonne Stern, that in fact hedeliberately fired away from her in order to “create a commotion”and collect the $5,000 he’d been promised in what prosecutorscontend was a convoluted murder-for-hire scheme.The five-woman, seven-man jury began deliberations at 10:26 a.m.State district Judge Denise Bradley had earlier denied defenseattorneys’ motion for a directed verdict that the state had notoffered sufficient evidence to prove its case.The courtly Maida (assisted in the trial by his attorney son,Sam Maida, Jr.) pointed out to the jurors that prosecutors did notcharge Nguyen with attempted capital murder although four others –Jeffrey Stern, his purported onetime mistress Michelle CabreraGaiser, Robert Gutierrez and James Lowery — have all been chargedwith solicitation of capital murder.Maida argued that in the videotaped statement Nguyen gave toHouston homicide investigators — after he was arrested in thecourse of the investigation of a second shooting on May 5, 2010, inwhich Yvonne Stern was shot in the stomach — the defendantrepeatedly said he never intended to harm Yvonne Stern. Instead, hemeant only to create enough of a disturbance that he could collectthe money he’d been promised.Referring to Yvonne Stern’s testimony on Monday, when she saidshe clearly saw Nguyen point a handgun at her and fire as she wasanwering the doorbell, Maida said he doubted she really had a clearlook before hearing the bullet that struck the hallway floor andricocheted into a wall. That’s why she described Nguyen, aVietnamese immigrant, as “a young Hispanic male” toinvestigators.Maida told the jurors that he hated to use the phrase, “Love isblind,” but that is apparently the case wth Yvonne Stern, who afterfiling for divorce from Jeffrey Stern last year dropped the petionand continues to live with him and their two teenage children.”Love is blind in her case. I think she’s blind to the truth ofwhat really happened,” he said.In the end, Maida said, the prosecution had failed to overcomeNguyen’s presumption of evidence by showing that the intentionallymeant to threaten or harm Yvonne Stern.In her closing, lead prosecutor Allen told the jurors thatNguyen was indeed guilty of attempted capital murder, since he hadadmitted in his statement that he’d accepted the job of killingher.”The facts show that his claim that he didn’t try to kill her isjust hogwash,” Allen said. “He couldnt’t kill her, and he needed tosave face.”She argued that ballistics evidece showed that when Nguyen firedthe 9-millimeter handgun, it jammed, preventing him from firingagain.Allen recalled for the jurors that Yvonne Stern had stronglytestified to her terror on that night.”Just because a bullet misses doesn’t mean that you don’t feelthreatened,” Allen said. “That one bullet scared her to death.”She noted that in her description, Yvonne Stern accuratelydescribed Nguyen’s bushy hairstyle and the striped button-downshirt and jeans he later told police he was wearing.Allen said Nguyen had admitted to accepting the job, anddeliberately pointed the weapon at Yvonne Stern and firing it.”He should not get credit for missing, because he tried to killher,” she said.