Delaney's death brought on a storm of criticism of Houston police. Women were struck by the idea of a lone woman chased for 13 miles in the dark on deserted freeways by three drunken policemen, one of whom ultimately killed her.

The Brazos County jury gave Alex Gonzales , 29, the minimum punishment of two year's probation and a $5,000 fine -- also probationary -- after convicting him earlier Wednesday of voluntary manslaughter in the Oct. 31, 1989, shooting death of Ida Lee Shaw Delaney, 50.

State District Judge Ted Poe set a 9 a.m. July 11 hearing to establish the conditions of Gonzales ' probation. He still could face six months in the Harris County Jail as a probationary condition imposed by the judge.

The guilty verdict at 3 :40 p.m. came as a surprise to court observers since jurors, who had been deliberating since Monday morning, had sent word to the judge on Tuesday that they had "a hung jury" and did not expect to reach a decision.

Court personnel identified the holdout juror as the foreman, Kenneth Spencer, 47, a postal clerk. However, Spencer only said it was "possible" he was the one.

Asked how it felt to be yelled at by the other 11 jurors -- 10 women and one man -- for three days, he said: "It wasn't fun, believe me."

Spencer said jurors were handicapped in their deliberations by not knowing exact Houston police procedures on whether the 13-mile pursuit of Delaney's vehicle along the freeway was legal and whether Gonzales ' drinking -- 11 to 13 beers and vodka cocktails in a 4 3 /4-hour span before the shooting -- left his mind so impaired that he "did not know what he was doing."

Spencer also said the voluntary manslaughter law as it pertained to the Delaney killing was enormously complicated, perhaps to the extent that it was unreasonable to expect jurors to understand it.

As the evidence showed, the near-collision on Interstate 45 led to Gonzales and two other hard-drinking, off-duty officers chasing Delaney to the Newcastle exit off U.S. 59. There she spotted the flashing red and blue lights on a highway department truck and stopped hoping the Highway Department personnel would protect her. When Gonzales arrived and rushed up to her, she shot him once in the stomach and then was fatally struck by a volley of return shots fired by the wounded officer.

Harris County prosecutors Joe Owmby and Belinda Hill only argued for conviction on the manslaughter law. They claimed a 1992 appellate decision in the case of Comeaux vs. Texas deprived prosecutors of the right to say Gonzales was legally intoxicated at the time of the shooting.

Delaney's daughter, Tammie Delaney, 32, a cafeteria worker for the Fort Bend school district, said she wanted to "jump for joy" when the guilty verdict was returned. But when the two-year probation was announced, she departed without a word.