* Lawyer says jury mocked Musk on verdict form with

'$4.20' reference

* Jury found Musk liable for statements affecting Twitter

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* Lawyers for investors not available for comment

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.

Lawyers for the Twitter investors did not immediately

respond to requests for comment.

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.

Investors said Musk did this to force Twitter 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. Musk completed the acquisition 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.