MINNEAPOLIS, MN. (THECOUNT) — The jury concluded its first day of deliberations without reaching a verdict Monday in the manslaughter trial of Kim Potter, the former suburban Minneapolis police officer who while on-duty fatally shot suspect Daunte Wright, who was the subject of a traffic stop.
The jury deliberated for around five hours on Monday concluding without reaching a verdict.
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Jurors submitted one question to the court about the timing of an interview Potter gave with a psychologist, but the judge didn’t answer and told them they had all the evidence they were to consider, reports MercuryNews.
In closing arguments, Prosecutor Erin Eldridge argued that Potter made a “blunder of epic proportions” and did not have “a license to kill.”
Potter’s attorney Earl Gray argued that the former Brooklyn Center officer made an honest mistake by pulling her handgun instead of her Taser and that shooting Wright wasn’t a crime.
Gray raised several objections during Eldridge’s tag-team closing arguments rebuttal.
After the jury was finally excused to go deliberate, Gray’s associate asked the judge for a mistrial complaining the Prosecutor essentially took two bites of the apple by delivering a pair of 14 minute final arguments, “it was not a rebuttal, it was a final argument,” the defense argued. The judge denied the motion.
The defense added that the double final argument was “unfair,” saying “This was a sandbag!, he [Prosecutor] sandbagged us, he sandbagged us by preparing another final argument, which was unfair.” Watch the exchange below:
Potter is facing State sentencing guidelines which called for just over seven years in prison upon conviction of first-degree manslaughter and four years for second-degree.
Deliberations will resume Tuesday.
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