JURY OUT IN STRIP-BAR PATRON'S DEATH; DELIBERATIONS START IN CASE AGAINST BOUNCERS ACCUSED OF ASPHYXIATING LANCASTER MAN.

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services

A jury has begun deliberating in the case of two strip-club bouncers accused of second-degree manslaughter for asphyxiating a Lancaster man.

Chad Wayne Hillman and Travis Lee Shannon are accused of culpable negligence in the September 1996 death of Robert Mark D'Errico, 33. They and a third security guard, Daniel Patrick Harris, originally were charged with second-degree murder.

D'Errico had been asked to leave Lady Godiva's for touching dancers at the club. Police said the three employees wrestled with the customer and pinned him to the floor.

``We have a man who was laid upon by a man (who) pinned him to the floor face down, and he suffocated because he couldn't breathe,'' said Assistant District Attorney David Robertson. ``He couldn't expand his chest to take in air.''

A pathologist testifying for the defense said D'Errico died of heart failure due to over-the-counter cold medicine and alcohol. Prosecutors believe D'Errico died of chest compression caused by a 450-pound bouncer atop him and two others holding his head, arms and legs.

Hillman and Shannon still work at Lady Godiva's. Harris pleaded no contest to second-degree manslaughter last year and was ordered to pay a share of the funeral expenses in restitution. He was placed on probation.

Robertson said Hillman and Shannon face a maximum punishment of four years in prison if convicted.

The victim in the case, a 33-year-old father of four girls, was in Tulsa on a business trip and went into the club with a co-worker. According to Tulsa police, witnesses said trouble began when bar workers were told the men were touching dancers.

Although the bouncers escorted the co-worker outside, D'Errico reportedly refused to leave and shook off the two bouncers who approached him, Tulsa police said.

Then Hillman laid on D'Errico until he went limp and someone realized he had stopped breathing, police said.

Bar patrons and workers attempted to revive D'Errico by performing CPR until paramedics arrived, but he was pronounced dead at a Tulsa hospital.