Jurors announced Friday that they have reached a verdict in some of the 10 counts against the four men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
After five days of deliberation, however, the jury is deadlocked on some of the charges.
Judge Robert Jonker ordered the jury to deliberate through the lunch hour before announcing which counts they’ve reached a unanimous decision on.
JURY BEGINS DELIBERATIONS IN WHITMER KIDNAPPING TRIAL
“It is not unusual to come back somewhere along the line of deliberations and say, ‘We tried but couldn’t get there,'” Jonker told the jury. “At least not on everything.”
“Before that’s the final answer, I would like you to go back and make another effort to see if you can come to an agreement on issues you are stuck on as a group,” he added.
All four defendants (Adam Fox, Brandon Caserta, Barry Croft Jr., and Daniel Harris) face kidnapping charges. Fox, Croft, and Harris face additional charges related to explosives and firearms.
Jurors requested evidence related to the explosives charge at the end of deliberations on Thursday. On Friday morning, the jurors were handed a large plastic bag containing pennies.
Croft allegedly rigged the pennies onto a commercial-grade firework so that they would act like shrapnel. Prosecutors said during closing arguments that Croft said the pennies would get so hot from the explosion that they would go “right through your skin.”
The jurors’ request followed a previous request earlier this week in which they inquired about the definition of a “weapon,” which the judge said is something that can be used to “injure, kill or destroy someone or something.”
Defense attorneys urged jurors to acquit their clients during closing arguments last Friday, saying they were high all the time when the plot was allegedly hatched during the summer of 2020 and that their clients would never have conspired to kidnap the Democratic governor in the first place if government informants embedded in the group hadn’t pushed them to do so.
But prosecutors detailed evidence showing the defendants had meticulously planned for five months to carry out the plot, with activities ranging from scouting out Whitmer’s vacation home, discussing plans to blow up a bridge to slow possible police response, and constructing a “shoot house” to practice storming and snatching the governor.
The defendants face life in prison if found guilty of plotting to kidnap Whitmer.
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“We can all see you’re hard at work,” Jonker told the jury after deliberations ended Thursday. “It can be an exhausting way to spend spring break. We know that because that room is not huge. It gets smaller each time you come back and spend more time looking through everything. We appreciate your diligence.”
