About 20 minutes before news time, the murder retrial of brothers Maurice and Emory Felix, who were already convicted in a separate case, ended in a hung jury.
This is the first murder retrial of the Felix brothers after their conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2008. In October of 2007, both men were convicted in their trial, but their attorney successfully argued before the Appeal's Court that the trial judge misdirected the jury.
Well, that retrial, which was ordered by the Appeal Court, started last week, and the main witness showed up and testified again for the prosecution, which was represented by Crown Counsel Cecil Ramirez.
The main witness testified that at 6:20 p.m. April 10, 2006, Mitchum Heredia, an auto-mechanic arrived at his home on T Street. As he was entering his yard in his Nissan Maxima Car, 2 armed men ran up to him, and one of them pointed a gun at him.
The witness identified the gunmen as the Felix brothers, who he knew for approximately 10-12 years. According to the witness, he saw one of the brothers speak to Heredia at gunpoint and then shoot him in the head, after which they continued firing until they had caused Heredia to suffer multiple injuries all over the body.
Heredia died on the shot, and the gunmen ran away and escaped. This main witness was able to identify accused men as the men he saw as the shooters in a dock identification, but because the police failed to the conduct a proper identification parade, the dock ID held little weight.
Both Felix brothers took the stand and provided alibi testimony saying that they both were elsewhere when this shooting took place. The jury deliberated for over 4 hours, but when they returned, they could not come to a unanimous decision either way. Justice Herbert Lord directed them to retire for a second time, but after over an hour more, they still returned unable to come up with a unanimous verdict.
As a result, Justice Lord was forced to declare a mistrial. Both men will now have to remain on remand until a second retrial is ordered at a later date.
They were represented by attorneys Arthur Saldivar and Simeon Sampson.
