Warren County Common Pleas Judge Neal Bronson discharged jurors around 5 p.m., after the jury — which deliberated for more than 30 hours over four days following 12 days of testimony — announced it was hopelessly deadlocked.
The jury of seven men, five women and two alternates talked with the attorneys for more than an hour, but none of them told the lawyers how they voted and declined media interviews.
Defense attorney Jay Clark said the hung jury was not necessarily a terrible outcome.
“Three things can happen when you go to trial, two of them are good for the defendant,” he said. “A not guilty and a hung jury, because on a hung jury no one goes to jail. Ryan didn’t go to jail, that’s a good thing.”
Although the retrial jurors aren’t talking, Jon Campbell, who served on the first jury a year ago and outed fellow jurors who conducted improper “drying experiments” during deliberations that led to the do-over, said the mistrial was no surprise to him.
“I thought it would be hung,” he said. “Because of how hard it was to come to a verdict when we were doing it.”
On Friday, the jury told Bronson it had reached an impasse after 20 hours of deliberations, but at the judge’s urging, agreed to resume deliberations Friday afternoon and starting again Tuesday morning.
The outcome has raised more questions for Widmer’s family.
“What does this mean?” said Widmer’s stepmother, Kim Widmer. “I guess we should be happy they didn’t find him guilty, but I don’t know what this means ... This is weird, it’s not going to end, is it?”
Widmer, who did not take the stand in either trial, was found guilty of murder in April 2009 in his wife’s drowning death, but the conviction was overturned because of jury misconduct.
Clark said they have 14 days to file a motion asking Bronson for an acquittal. Then the prosecutors get to respond and Bronson will rule.
Mark Krumbein, a seasoned defense attorney who has spend a good deal of time in the courtroom during the 16 days of trial, said Bronson, though he has rejected prior requests for acquittal in this case, could free Widmer.
“Judge Bronson is well known for having the guts to make difficult calls. If he feels the law permits and indicates an acquittal I believe he will do so,” he said. “Judge Bronson is one of eight judges in the state of Ohio to go against a jury’s recommendation of death, since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1981.”
If Bronson does not free Widmer, it will be up to prosecutors to decide whether or not to try him a third time. Clark said it will be up to Widmer to retain him as counsel, if he does a third trial likely won’t happen until the fall.
When asked if the taxpayers of Warren County should have to pay for another trial, Gary Widmer said his son shouldn’t have been on trial at all.
“They shouldn’t have been tasked with paying for a second time around. I don’t think the people of Warren County should have to pay for this,” he said.
Gary Widmer said he was “humbled” by all the people, strangers, who showed up every day in court to support his son.
Dr. Stephen Cruikshank of Hamilton Twp. said he is disappointed in Tuesday’s outcome.
“I just think this a travesty, what happened today,” he said. “A group that have deliberated for as long as they have should be able to take the evidence and come to some conclusion, based on reasonable doubt, and I think there was reasonable doubt,” Cruikshank said.
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