Wednesday at trial: jury not unanimous, deliberations continue (2:30 p.m.)

2:32 p.m. update:

Jury was not unanimous on all counts. Judge asked the jury to continue deliberation. After the jury left, the judge said the jury foreman said, “There is a difference of opinion, but the jury has not yet reached a point at which they are unable to agree.”

1:45 p.m. update:

At 1:45 p.m., the jury has announced a verdict has been reached. It will take a few minutes before everyone is gathered back in the courtroom. We will relay the verdict as soon as we know it.
At approximately 10:40 a.m. Wednesday, the jury returned to the courtroom so Judge Louis Sands could answer two of the jury’s questions.

Question 1 dealt with Count 3 of the indictments, in which Liz Croley is accused of making false entries in a document. The jury essentially asked if both of 2 elements had to be false in order to find Croley guilty on Count 3. The two elements, which are still unproven accusations, are that 1) Liz Croley falsely stated Norma McIntyre’s witness statement said she saw Aaron Parrish hit Liz Croley 2) Liz Croley omitted any reference to Wiley Griffin using force during the incident.

The judge instructed the jury that only one of the two elements needed to be false to satisfy a guilty verdict. The judge pointed out that the jury could find that both elements could be false, only one element was false, or neither was false.

In question 2, the jury asked for the audio clips of Chris Kines and Wade Umbach separately talking to FBI Agent Steve McDermond to be replayed for them. In the clips, both Kines and Umbach said they did not see Wiley Griffin IV hit Aaron Parrish. In the clips, Umbach said he saw Wiley Griffin IV at the scene after Parrish was handcuffed, but Umbach said the only time Griffin IV touched Parrish is when Umbach asked Griffin and another Grady County deputy to lead Parrish to a golf cart. The golf cart was to transport Parrish to the Sheriff’s command center on the Bikefest grounds.

After Judge Sands confirmed he had answered both questions, the jury went back to their room to continue deliberation.