This is what one of the jury members wrote in to the star banner. .Well have to try this case again, Lambert said. The case must be tried in front of a new jury within 90 days, unless the defense asks for more time. After the judge discharged the jurors, thanking them for their service, one panelist reached out to the Star-Banner under condition of anonymity. We are all very saddened with this situation and I know my thoughts are with the Centracco family, the female juror wrote in an email. I feel we let them all down, and for that I am sorry that some people just cannot follow directions. Later, during an interview, that juror said if Lambert had individually questioned the panelists, he would have found they had no knowledge of the foremans actions and could have returned to deliberating with an alternate in lieu of the foreman. We were all going to come to some decision, she said, suggesting the work couldnt be done in one day. When the group first began discussions on Wednesday, an initial tally concluded eight guilty votes and four not guilty votes. After the formal charge from the judge, the panel left for the day on Thursday with almost everybody in agreement a burglary had been committed, and then hoped to move to discussing the murder charge Friday. Chatter among those awaiting the verdict suspected a hung jury might have been the end result. I dont know if he would have (been found guilty of) the murder, that might have been the hung part. But we had him for the burglary — everyone was there, pretty much, the juror said. One piece of evidence particularly resonated with the interviewed juror. I was sitting right on the fence until those phone records popped up, she said. Then her opinion changed. I was done, he was guilty. She was referring to records showing that Woods cellphone was used near Centraccos home the night of her death, and his cellphone activity. Some jurors had a hard time placing Woods at the scene. They had a hard time of putting the gun in his hand and then putting him at the house, she said. The state did not recover the murder weapon. During the discussions, which at times became very heated and left a few jurors in tears, two big questions surfaced that went unanswered: How did Marshall Pardee (Centraccos boyfriend) die, and did the police ever search Julia Barnes (Woods roommate) car to find evidence of marijuana in the trunk? After being dismissed from the case, the juror learned Woods is also charged with the 2010 death of Pardee and Chyavana Hampton. That needs to be brought up, she said. But the judge explicitly did not allow that information to be provided to the jury because it would have been unduly prejudicial in this case. A big question for the jury had been why Barnes waited three years to come forward with her statements. Credibility of both state and defense witnesses was a factor. The parade of prison inmates on the defense side didnt sit well with the female juror. After hearing of Woods other pending cases, the juror wondered if any murder weapon found in the Pardee/Hampton case matched the bullets in the Centracco case. Personally I hope they fry that guy, she said, calling Woods a cold-blooded killer.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 05:24:04 +0000
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