JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Jurors deciding the fate of a Florida man charged with fatally shooting a teen after an argument over loud music asked a judge Friday if they can reach a verdict on some counts but not others.
The 12 jurors in the trial of Michael Dunn asked their question as they approached the 20th hour of deliberations over three days.
Judge Russell Healey told them the answer is “yes.”
“The law allows that,” Healey said.
The sequestered jurors couldn’t reach a verdict Friday evening, despite deliberating for 22 hours over three days. They went back to their hotel and planned to return to the courthouse Saturday morning.
Dunn is charged with first-degree murder for fatally shooting 17-year-old Jordan Davis outside a Jacksonville convenience store in 2012. Dunn claims he shot the Marietta, Ga., teen in self-defense. But prosecutors told jurors Dunn shot the teen because he felt disrespected by Davis during an argument over loud music.
Besides first-degree murder, Dunn is charged with three counts of attempted murder since there were three friends of Davis in the car Dunn shot into and also a single count of shooting a firearm at a vehicle.
With jurors out of the courtroom, the judge said that if they came back and said they were deadlocked, they would be asked to follow certain “deadlock” procedures.
According to a Florida Supreme Court committee’s description, those procedures include having jurors go back to the deliberation room and having each individual juror discuss any weakness in his or her position. Healey said a mistrial would be declared if they couldn’t reach a verdict after that procedure. Prosecutors would be free to retry Dunn on any count where there was no decision, Healey said.
The Dunn trial was the latest Florida case to raise questions about self-defense and race. Dunn is white and the teens were black.
It came six months after George Zimmerman was acquitted of any crime for fatally shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, about 125 miles south of Jacksonville. The Dunn trial was prosecuted by the same State Attorney’s Office that handled the Zimmerman case. Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic, while Martin was black.
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Mike Schneider contributed from Orlando, Fla.
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