* Lawyer says jury mocked Musk on verdict form with

'$4.20' reference

* Jury found Musk liable for statements affecting Twitter

shares

* Investors' lawyers call concerns about verdict

meritless

(Adds comments from investors' lawyers, verdict details,

paragraphs 7-10)

By Jonathan Stempel

March 26 (Reuters) - A lawyer for Elon Musk urged a

federal judge to review a recent jury verdict finding that Musk

defrauded Twitter investors when buying the social media

company, saying jurors improperly used the verdict to "send a

message" by finding him liable.

In a letter filed on Thursday in San Francisco federal

court, Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro accused jurors of "mocking" his

client by writing the number "$4.20" in bright blue on the

verdict form, though the remaining entries were written in

black.

The number 420 is associated with marijuana culture. Musk,

the world's richest person, has often mentioned 420 in

interviews and tweets, and used it in business activities.

He valued Twitter, now known as X, at $54.20 per share in

his $44 billion buyout.

Spiro said the jury's "numerical joke" was "no doubt

intentional," and when added to other alleged trial errors

called into question the March 20 verdict, where damages could

reach $2.5 billion. He said "further inquiry" by U.S. District

Judge Charles Breyer, who oversees the case, was needed.

"The inescapable conclusion from the face of the verdict

form is that the jury felt it appropriate to use its verdict to

send a message to Mr. Musk, instead of properly discharging its

solemn duty to render a just verdict," Spiro wrote.

Frank Bottini and Mark Molumphy, two of the investors'

lawyers, in a joint statement called Spiro's letter meritless.

"It is unfortunate that Musk has again decided to criticize

the court and the jury, rather than take accountability for his

own conduct," Bottini and Molumphy said. "Given the overwhelming

evidence presented at trial, it goes beyond the pale to attack

an extremely diligent jury simply for doing its job."

MUSK ALSO USED '420' AT TESLA

Jurors found Musk liable for two statements he made not long

after announcing the buyout, where he questioned whether Twitter

was overrun by fake and spam accounts, known as bots.

They did not find him liable for a third statement about

bots, or for scheming to defraud.

Twitter investors said Musk criticized the company to force

it to renegotiate his offer, or let him back out.

They said Musk's comments hurt Twitter's stock price,

causing losses when they sold their shares at depressed prices.

The acquisition closed in October 2022.

Musk has also used 420 in connection with his electric car

company Tesla.

In 2020, for example, he cut the price of Tesla's Model S by

4% to $69,420.

Two years earlier, he tweeted that he had "funding secured"

to take Tesla private for $420 per share. The tweet prompted a

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil fraud lawsuit that

Musk later settled.