Murder trial ends in mistrial
By Gary Popp
Published in News on January 23, 2011 1:50 AM
After nearly four hours of deliberation, the jurors in the first-degree murder trial of Windsor Ingram deadlocked 11-1 Friday.
Ingram, 24, had been charged in connection with the September 2007 shooting death of Tomorris Njai Raynor in Mount Olive.
At 5:30 p.m., in front of about 25 of Ingram's friends and family members, Special Superior Court Judge Jack W. Jenkins of Morehead City ruled the case a mistrial.
Minutes earlier, the jury was called into the courtroom from deliberation. Jenkins asked the jury foreman if he thought any additional time allotted for deliberation would result in progress. The jury foreman said that he did not.
Testimony and evidence, including a bag of crack cocaine found in the victim's hand, were used to suggest Raynor's death was the result of drug activity.
Ingram has denied being in the area at the time of the shooting and that he was ever involved in drug activity. He told the jury during testimony earlier in the week that he was at home with his children in Goldsboro when the murder occurred.
Although multiple witness statements put Ingram at the scene of the incident at the time of the shooting, Assistant District Attorney Matt Delbridge did not produce an individual to physically point out Ingram in the courtroom as the shooter.
Following the trial, Ingram was returned to the Wayne County Detention Center, where he has been held for more than three years, to await a new trial.
Court officials will produce transcripts of the three-day trial for each attorney for review and preparation for the subsequent retrial.
It has not been determined when the case will be retried.