Hung: Jury can't decide whether woman guilty or not guilty of murder
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| Angelica Swartout stands as the jury enters the Lane County courtroom in Eugene to hear instructions from the judge before retiring for the weekend on Friday, Feb. 3, 2012. (Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard/Pool) |
When questioned by the judge, the jurors told the court they could not come to a decision on whether 24-year-old Angelica Swartout was guilty or not guilty of murder.
Judge Suzanne Chanti called the jury "hopelessly hung" and declared a mistrial. The judge set a new trial to begin April 16.
The exact results of a poll of the hung jury will not be made public. The court dismissed the jurors.
By Oregon law, 10 jurors for not guilty and 2 for guilty can result in a not guilty verdict.
However, all 12 jurors must agree to a guilty verdict to convict a defendant of murder.
The court has yet to determine whether or not Swartout will remain jailed pending her new trial. Swartout has been behind bars since Dec. 9, 2010.
The case sparked a desperate search of the Short Mountain Landfill after Swartout told police she dumped the baby boy in a garbage bin.
A body was never found.
At trial, the defense said Swartout had miscarried earlier in the pregnancy and pretended to be pregnant in order to get attention from her family.
When she took the stand in her ofwn defense, Swartout testified about her videotaped confession to police that she had delivered a baby in a workplace bathroom in October 2010.
"My mind wasn't processing what was going on at the time," she told the court. "I didn't realize at that time I was setting myself up for an aggravated murder charge."
Watch this website or KVAL 13 TV News at 5, 6 and 11 on Wednesday for updates
