Mistrial Possible in Murder Case

A jury was hung, and defense announced plans to move for a mistrial in a murder case.

After 45 minutes of deliberation today, the jury declared it was at an “impasse” today on one of three charges against a San Diego man accused of killing a Temecula liquor store clerk.

Marcus Fletcher faces three charges: two stemming from the fatal robbery of Rancho Liquor in Old Town and one from a fatal shooting on a San Diego street.

He faces a charge of murder for allegedly shooting store clerk Rafi Ibrahim, 34, of Temecula and a charge of attempted murder for trying to shoot a customer during the 2005 robbery.

To read more about that incident,

He faces another charge of murder for allegedly shooting Kedran Howard, 23, of San Diego in an unrelated incident a few months earlier.

To read more about that incident,

One more day to decide

The jury announced it reached a verdict Wednesday on the charges relating to the liquor store robbery, though what the verdict is will not be announced until Monday.

The charge relating to the San Diego shooting left the jury split 11-1 by Wednesday evening.

After about 35 minutes of deliberation today, the split shifted to 6-6, according to the presiding judge, F. Paul Dickerson.

The judge ordered the jury to return to the court on Monday and listen to new 15-minute closing arguments from the attorneys in an attempt to break the impasse.

“They told the court the same thing yesterday,” Dickerson told the attorneys about the announcement the jury made on Wednesday. Nonetheless, several jurors changed their stance in less than an hour. “It tells me they’re not at an impasse.”

The right to hang

The jury has the right to declare itself hung, and pressuring the jurors to reach a verdict is wrong, defense attorneys told the judge.

The extra deliberation time this morning only locked the jury more, said defense attorney Miles Clark.

“You can’t get split any more than that,” he said, referring to the jury’s 6-6 standoff. “They’re even more deadlocked.”

Short deliberation

The jury put too little time into the case, said prosecutor Sam Kaloustian. “I don’t think we got enough of a commitment on their part,” he said. “I don’t know what their hurry is.”

The jury started deliberations Wednesday, and less than two days is an unusually short time for a trial so long – the trial took 34 days so far – and with such high stakes – Fletcher faces the death penalty if convicted.

“That’s not fair considering the time and energy we spent presenting evidence in this case,” Kaloustian told the judge. “This is beyond expectation that they came back deadlocked after one day and a few hours.”