Aug.10, 2006 – Unable to reach a verdict after deliberating since 9 a.m. Thursday, jurors in the first-degree murder trial of Rennell Lettsome asked Judge Brenda Hollar at about 5 p.m. for permission to suspend deliberations until Friday.
After conferring with attorneys – prosecutors Ernest Bason and William Kelly Evans, and defense attorney Pedro Williams – Hollar granted the request.
The jurors sent the judge a note saying they were "unable to come to a decision on the charges" – Lettsome is charged with 12 criminal counts, including the first-degree murder of David Geiger, first-degree assault, arson and assault with a deadly weapon.
Hollar told the jurors, "I'm not sure what you mean, but counsel has agreed."
Sometime before noon Thursday, the jurors sent a note to Hollar asking why Amber Taylor, Lettsome's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child, had not testified at the trial.
Hollar told them that Taylor – an absent but pivotal figure in the testimony – was in the states and thus out of the 90-mile subpoena area (See "Jury Deliberations Begin Thursday in Geiger Case").
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