The state judge who presided over Christopher Deedy’s two murder trials, which both ended with hung juries, says she will decide this week whether the U.S. State Department special agent will stand trial a third time for fatally shooting Kollin Elderts.
A third trial would be for manslaughter because the jury in the second trial acquitted Deedy of murder. That jury was deadlocked on manslaughter, assault and use of a firearm in a felony.
Circuit Judge Karen Ahn heard arguments for and against dismissing the case Monday. She rejected one of four arguments Deedy’s lawyers presented for dismissal and withheld ruling on the other three.
She said she will inform the lawyers of her decision on the remaining arguments.
The argument Ahn rejected concerns legal precedent that prevents the state from continuing to take a defendant to trial with the same evidence until it gets a conviction. She said the seriousness of the crime, complexity of the issues, strength of the state’s case and likelihood of an outcome other than a hung jury warrant another trial.
Ahn suggested to Deedy’s lawyers that they could put all further proceedings on hold if they appeal her ruling rejecting the legal precedent argument.
“Because if the court’s wrong, a contrary result will result in the dismissal of the case,” she said.
The other three arguments concern prohibitions against double jeopardy.
Deedy’s lawyers say the state gave up its opportunity to ever take a manslaughter charge to trial when it said in the first trial that the evidence didn’t warrant giving the jury the opportunity to consider it. They also say that Ahn’s finding in agreement equates to an acquittal.
In the first two trials the state argued that Deedy committed murder because he intentionally killed Elderts. The manslaughter charge accuses Deedy of recklessly killing Elderts.
“To now allow the state to contradict everything it has represented to the former jurors, to this court and to the public by presenting an alternate theory which until now they repeatedly maintained did not apply, is not justice,” said Hayley Cheng, one of Deedy’s lawyers.
The defense lawyers also said the acquittal to murder after the second trial precludes retrying Deedy on any other lesser charges, including manslaughter.
Deputy Prosecutor Janice Futa represented the state in Deedy’s first two trials and is expected to do so again if there is a third trial.
She said the state did not abandon manslaughter and that double jeopardy does not apply.
“If this court does not allow a retrial on the charges for which there was no acquittal, and for the charges on which the jury was hung, that would defeat public justice,” she said.
