Hung jury ends trial in airport gun case

The jury in a trial involving a gun at the airport agreed to disagree Monday.

In a fitting end to the longest misdemeanor trial Del Norte Superior Court Judge William Follet said he has seen in his nine years on the bench, jurors who deliberated for about five hours couldn’t reach a verdict in the case of local chiropractor Sean Gray.

Gray was arrested for having a concealed weapon in his carry-on baggage while trying to board a plane at Crescent City’s airport.

The three-day trial, which had Judge Follet apologizing to a juror for the amount of time it took, ended with a hung jury.

After notice of the jury’s failure to reach a  verdict was delivered to Follet, defense attorney Darren McElfresh mouthed the words “mistrial, deadlock” to his client.

He turned out to be correct. Follet then questioned each juror about whether the jury was hopelessly deadlocked.

After the case had been declared a mistrial, the judge asked what verdict the majority of the jury vote favored, and the jury spokesperson replied, “not guilty.”

Earlier Monday, McElfresh and Deputy District Attorney Mordechai Pelta kept their closing arguments short after two drawn-out days of testimony last week.

“For the prosecution to prove that the defendant is guilty they must prove that he had a concealed weapon and that he knew it,” McElfresh said. “He would have to be a mental health patient to knowingly carry a concealed weapon into an airport.”

McElfresh also responded to the prosecution’s earlier claims that Gray’s  story had changed, and that he must have noticed the weight of a gun in his bag.

“He never changed his story, he just didn’t know what the actual story was,” McElfresh said. “If you’re in a rush you’re not going to notice a weight difference.”

McElfresh finished his closing arguments simply, by saying Gray “would have to be insane” to knowingly take a gun to the airport.

In his closing, Pelta contested McElfresh’s claim that for Gray to be guilty he must have known the gun was in his bag.

“In this case the people do not have to prove motive,” Pelta said. “It doesn’t matter whether he knew or not, by the straight letter of the law he brought it in there, whether he knew or not he is still guilty of committing the crime.”

Pelta also questioned whether the defense witnesses were credible, even intimating that Sean Gray’s fiance, Buenafe Behar, may have been taking cues from the defendant and that her testimony was rehearsed.

“If you ignore the shell game the defense attorney has used to confuse you, if you look at just the facts, you will see that he is guilty,” Pelta said.

As the judge declared a mistrial and released the jury, McElfresh patted Gray on the back.

The prosecution could seek a new trial, McElfresh said later, “but it would be silly and a waste of taxpayers’ money.”