Rape case ends in mistrial when jurors cannot reach verdict
Jurors deliberated for nearly seven hours over the course of two days without reaching a verdict in the LJ Harris rape trial.
Brent Robinson, Richland County Common Pleas Judge, declared a mistrial after the jury foreman notified him around 2:30 p.m. Friday.
"More deliberations will not matter. We are too far apart," the foreman wrote in a note to the judge.
Harris, 43, was charged with two counts of rape and single counts of attempted rape and felonious assault. The reported rape occurred on Aug. 29, 2004.
The six-man, six woman jury showed signs of frustration during some of their breaks. When jurors broke for lunch at noon Friday, the first to leave the courtroom uttered an expletive and mentioned "saying the same thing."
Harris will remain in the county jail on a $500,000 cash bond. Whether the case will be retried is up to the prosecutor's office.
"I always want to respect the jury for considering the evidence," Assistant Prosecutor Olivia Boyer said. "Obviously, we're going to assess the case. I'm inclined to proceed on it again."
The accuser, who now lives in South Carolina, went home after testifying and was not present Friday.
"I think the victim deserves justice," Boyer said.
Defense attorney says 20-year-old case presented challenges
Defense attorney Jennifer Harmon paused before giving her reaction to the hung jury.
"I'm not surprised by the outcome because it's a 20-year-old case," she said. "I respect the jury process; however, given the age of the case, there was a lot of evidence that will never be able to be presented, which makes mounting a defense incredibly difficult.
"I would hope that the state wouldn't bring the case again because the hung jury has shown that there is some reasonable doubt to be found, but they're going to do what they do with their resources."
Before the case went to the jury around 3 p.m. Thursday, Harris took the stand and maintained sex with the accuser was consensual.
The accuser, who was in town for the memorial service of her father-in-law, stayed with her estranged husband the night of Aug. 28, 2004.
She testified that she woke up with her husband on top of her, wanting sex. She said she angrily pushed him off her and left his apartment wearing a housecoat.
The woman said Harris picked her up in a white Lexus with gold trim. She said he later demanded oral sex and threatened her with a straight razor, adding he cut her on the thumb.
Further, she said Harris pulled over in an alley near Sheridan Avenue, put her in the back seat and raped her both vaginally and anally. A sexual assault exam revealed tears to the woman's vagina and anus.
The case went cold until the spring of last year, when there was a hit on a national database that contains DNA profiles of convicted offenders.
Authorities had recovered semen from the back of the accuser's leg. The probability that the sample was from someone other than Harris was 1 in 307 billion, according to a police DNA technician. There are 8.1 billion people on the planet.
Samples collected from the woman's vagina and anus were not tested. Harris said they did not have anal sex.
"She said she got into a fight with her husband, but they weren't really together," he testified Thursday. "We rode around for about 20 minutes, just being flirtatious with each other. It became a little sexual. It all happened so fast."
Harris said the woman asked him to pay her $40, but he refused and offered to drop her off where he picked her up.
Harmon suggested in her closing argument that the woman's injuries could have been caused by her estranged husband. He died in 2007.
When the incident reportedly happened, the woman wanted to remain anonymous and did not get police involved.
Assistant prosecutor said accuser's story has never changed
In her closing argument, Boyer said the accuser's story has been consistent all along.
"For 20 years, she has had to live with the repercussions of what happened," Boyer told the jury.
The woman picked Harris out of a photo array. Boyer pointed to the DNA evidence as a key to the case.
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Jurors fail to reach verdict in OH rape case, judge declares mistrial
