5:01 p.m. — At 5 p.m. the jury deliberating the 13 charges against suspended DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis went home, again without reaching a verdict.
They will start late on Thursday, coming in at 12:30 p.m. because one of the 12 women on the jury is scheduled to be in Magistrate Court in Fayette County because she is trying to evict a tenant.
To ensure that they start their work right away, however, Judge Courtney Johnson told them to eat lunch before they come Thursday, their eighth day of deliberations. She said she would give them a longer afternoon break to compensate.
2:05 p.m. — The 12 women deciding the corruption case against suspended DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis are back in the jury room after taking an hour off from deliberations for lunch.
Except for a 20-minute morning break and taking lunch, there have been no communications about how things are progressing, if at all.
Earlier Wednesday, a note from the jury said it had been unable to reach verdicts on “all the counts.” It wasn’t clear if jurors had voted on some of the 13 counts but not all or if they were unable to agree on any of them.
Already the jury has asked about starting time Thursday. One juror has a hearing before a Fayette County magistrate in regards to a tenant she is trying to evict. If there is no agreement by the end of the day Wednesday, deliberations will resume at noon Thursday.
11:51 a.m. — Just two hours after the jury told Judge Courtney Johnson they were struggling to reach verdicts on "all the counts" against DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis, one member of the all-woman panel asked if they could delay starting their deliberations Thursday morning.
That juror had alerted the judge and lawyers last month of the appointment in Magistrate Court in Fayette County to evict a non-paying tenant.
“I remember this came up and we thought it wouldn’t be a problem because we thought we would be through (before the juror’s court date),” defense attorney Craig Gillen said. “She gave us notice about this in September. I would hope we’d be able to accommodate her.”
Johnson said starting deliberations at noon on Thursday should not delay the case too much more since the jury had actually talked only one hour to one-and-a-half hours each morning with the exception of Tuesday when they talked for four.
Jurors will be told to be in court at noon Thursday, instead of the usual 9 a.m., to resume their deliberations, assuming they don’t reach a verdict on all 13 counts Wednesday.
Though Wednesday was the seventh day of the jury has had the case, Johnson said they had been “actually deliberating” only 22 hours.
9:52 a.m. — Here's part of the text of the note jurors wrote to Judge Courtney Johnson on Wednesday morning:
“We the jury are unable to come to a unanimous decision against W. Burrell Ellis Jr. on all the counts,” according to the note, read by Johnson in court.
Johnson responded to the jury that it needs to keep working toward an agreement. She said 22 hours of deliberations is a short time compared to the three weeks of testimony the jury heard during the trial.
Ellis has pleaded not guilty to 13 counts against him including bribery, theft, extortion and perjury.
9:42 a.m. — The jury in DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis' trial wrote a note to the judge saying that it hasn't been able to reach a unanimous verdict.
Judge Courtney Johnson said she would tell the jury to continue trying to work out its differences after 22 hours of deliberations over seven days.
“My suggestion is that we tell them to continue deliberating,” Johnson said. “We have a long way to go.”
9:06 a.m. — Could this be the day that the jury deciding the case of DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis reaches a verdict?
Jurors resumed working toward a decision Wednesday, their seventh day of deliberations.
The jury hasn’t given any indication how close it was to completing the case, but it didn’t report any of the personality conflicts that temporarily stalled proceedings last week when the judge sent them home early one day.
Jurors have instead asked Judge Courtney Johnson to answer questions about the evidence and the law.
Ellis is accused of threatening government contractors that resisted contributing to his 2012 re-election campaign. He has pleaded not guilty to 13 charges.
The jury is made up of 10 black women and two white women, and it could deliver a verdict at any time.
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