4:52 p.m — After six days in the jury room, the 12 women who are deciding whether DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis is corrupt stopped their deliberations for the day.
The jury had three questions for the judge Tuesday after taking Monday off because some of the juror’s children had the day off from school.
The questions suggested the jury — 10 black women and two white women — was debating issues such as whether an employee’s lunch time belongs to the government and whether they have to find Ellis guilty of all the events in a single court in order to convict him of it.
The jury was told to be back Wednesday at 9 a.m.
2:59 p.m. — Treading carefully, Judge Courtney Johnson tells jurors deciding charges against DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis that time during normal working hours belongs to the employer, but she declined to give any more information than she already has.
The jurors had asked if the lunch hour belonged to the employee or the government. The answer they got related to normal working hours but not lunchtime.
One of the concerns during discussions before the jury was brought in was to take care not to introduce new evidence. Johnson said she couldn’t recall any testimony about DeKalb County government employees use of their lunch hours.
2:12 p.m. — The first order of business after jurors returned from a lunch break was to address two questions: does the lunch hour belong to the government or employees and it the use of lunchtime different for salaried and hourly workers?
Judge Courtney Johnson said those were not issues that came up during testimony and any answer could not be adding to the evidence.
12:32 p.m. — All was quiet in court as a jury continued deliberating the fate of DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis.
The jury hasn’t asked any more questions and hasn’t taken a lunch break.
A handful of Ellis supporters, lawyers and news media waited for a resolution in the courtroom of Judge Courtney Johnson.
10:28 a.m. — If jurors believe DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis is guilty of one accusation, does that make him guilty of an entire criminal charge?
That’s the question the jury deciding Ellis’ case asked a judge after about an hour of deliberations Tuesday.
Judge Courtney Johnson wrote a response to the jury’s note, telling jurors they can find Ellis guilty if they agree he committed a crime in any of the ways alleged in the indictment.
“The jury must agree unanimously to at least one of the alternative methods alleged in the indictment,” Johnson wrote in her response. “If you unanimously find the defendant guilty of one of the ways, then you would be authorized to find the defendant guilty.”
9:10 a.m. — After a long weekend off, the 12 women deciding the corruption trial of DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis returned to court Tuesday to try and reach a verdict.
The jury was set to deliberate the case for a sixth day after failing to reach agreement on the charges against Ellis last week.
Jurors previously had personality conflicts and leadership disputes Thursday, but there were no signs of those conflicts Friday.
The jury is made up of 10 black women and two white women.
They’re considering whether Ellis is guilty of 13 charges, including bribery, theft, extortion and perjury.
An indictment against Ellis accuses him of threatening county contractors that resisted contributing to his 2012 re-election campaign
Please return to AJC.com for updates.
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