FORT SMITH -- A Sebastian County circuit judge declared a mistrial Friday in a weeklong first-degree murder trial after the jury deadlocked in its deliberations.
The jury of seven men and five women met privately for nearly six hours Thursday and Friday before announcing it was deadlocked on whether Denver Wayne Pennington, 30, was guilty of murder in the Jan. 26 shooting death of 33-year-old Arthur McIntyre.
The jury also did not reach a verdict on a charge that Pennington was a felon in possession of a firearm.
Jurors told Circuit Judge Stephen Tabor on Thursday they were having trouble deciding the case after three hours of deliberation. Tabor told them to try to resolve their differences and reach a verdict, but after another hour the jury had not made any progress.
At that point, Tabor told attorneys in the case he was going to declare a mistrial, but the jury foreman suggested jurors take a break overnight and return Friday morning.
After nearly two hours in the jury room Friday, jurors returned to the courtroom and announced they could not reach a verdict.
Tabor declared a mistrial, released the jury and gave the prosecution a week to decide whether it will retry Pennington. He ordered Pennington's bond to remain at $500,000.
Pennington's attorney, Erwin Davis of Fayetteville, said after the trial he would talk to Pennington about filing a motion to reduce his bond but wondered whether the judge would be willing to lower it enough to allow Pennington's family to bail him out of jail.
Pennington has been in the Sebastian County jail since his arrest in January.
Pennington was accused of shooting McIntyre once in the torso with a hunting rifle as Pennington and his fiancee Cymanthia VanMatre tried to leave the house at 3001 Alabama Ave. where they had rented a room.
Pennington claimed he shot McIntyre in self-defense, arguing that McIntyre was drunk and had threatened the couple, once pulling out a knife.
Pennington and VanMatre said they were afraid for their safety when McIntyre emerged from the house while they were trying to leave and charged at them despite warnings from Pennington that he would shoot if he came closer.
Deputy prosecutor Alison Houston argued that Pennington was not justified in killing McIntyre. McIntyre made no threats when he went out of the house, he was not armed, and there was a chain link fence that separated the two men and through which Pennington fired to kill McIntyre.
Davis said he believed the fact the state couldn't produce a sober witness to the events surrounding the shooting was a "glaring defect" in the state's case and accounted for the jury's inability to reach a verdict.
One of the state's main witnesses was Alexander Parrett, the owner of the residence. Parrett testified that he had been drunk three times on the day of the shooting and was still drunk hours after McIntyre's death when he gave a written statement to police about what happened.
He testified to witnessing events that occurred between Pennington and McIntyre before and during the shooting.
Houston declined to comment Friday.
State Desk on 09/10/2016