A Gwinnett County mother charged with murdering her 2-year-old is being released from jail on bond, due to juror misconduct, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Channel 2 was in the courtroom Tuesday as Amy Ruiz was about to stand trial for the 2007 death of her daughter, Prisi, whose body was found decomposed in the family's former Lawrenceville home, and discovered by new tenants several months later.
According to Channel 2, lawyers and the judge spent a day and a half questioning more than 70 potential jurors and when the final jurors were about the be picked, it was discovered that one of the potential jurors had gone against the orders of the court and looked up information about the case online, tainting the jury pool.
The judge declared a mistrial and sent everyone home after one of the potential jurors came forward about the juror who was researching the case, the station said.
Ruiz is not happy with the delay, her husband, Jorge Amador, told Channel 2. “She is getting sad, because she still has to deal with this. We hoped that this could be finished by this weekend.”
Ruiz wasn't charged with her daughter's murder until June 2015 and has been behind bars since then, insisting she was kidnapped and knew nothing of her daughter's death. Police believe Ruiz's former husband Christian Vasquez killed Prisi and then hid her body in the attic of the family's home, before fleeing Mexico with Ruiz.
Vasquez was arrested in 2012 in Mexico and extradited to back to Georgia for the murder.
The court told Channel 2 that it will likely be several weeks before Ruiz’s trial is rescheduled.
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