Published: September 04, 2008 10:37 am         

Lewdness case ends in mistrial

Jury deadlocked; prosecutor says he will retry case

Payne County District Judge Donald Worthington declared a mistrial for Cornell Maurice Mukes when the jury said it could not come to an agreement Wednesday afternoon.

Mukes is charged with four counts of lewd acts as to a child under 16.

An 11-year-old boy testified Tuesday that Mukes had touched his genitals and made him touch Mukes’ genitals. Stillwater Police Detective Sgt. Jeff Watts also testified Tuesday for the prosecution, saying that Mukes said during an interview in Stillwater Medical Center that he did commit the acts being alleged, but that the boy asked him to do so.

After the state rested Tuesday, Worthington adjourned court to be reconvened Wednesday morning.

When it did, defense attorney Todd Higgins asked to approach the bench and then did so along with Assistant District Attorney Tom Lee. The defense then rested its case without calling any witnesses.

After Worthington dismissed the jurors so he could prepare his instructions for them, Higgins told the court that although Mukes understood he could testify, he had decided he did not want to do so.

After court reconvened, Worthington gave the jury its instructions regarding the law as it pertained to the case, and Lee and Higgins gave closing statements.

Lee went over the testimonies of the boy and Watts and told the jury he believed he met the burden of proof that Mukes is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Higgins told the jury that the state’s case had too many holes in it and asked the jury to consider why other witnesses weren’t brought in to testify, like the child welfare specialist who interviewed the boy, the boy’s father, his sister and a friend whom he testified Tuesday was in the home during one of the alleged incidents, and why the state did not show the videotape of the boy’s interview with the child welfare specialist.

He asked the jury to consider why Watts did not interview Mukes again after he had been released from the hospital and told the jury that Mukes did not testify because he did not believe the state had filled gaps in its case.

In his rebuttal, Lee told the jury that there had been no testimony that Mukes was under medication when Watts asked him questions and that although Watts testified that he had talked to a doctor after the interview, Higgins never asked Watts what the doctor said.

Jurors received the case at about 11 a.m. They returned shortly before 3:30 p.m. and advised the court that they were split 10-2 and had been so for about an hour. The foreman also said that the first vote had been 10-2, but a different 10-2.

Worthington asked the jury to return to deliberations and recessed the court again.

At 4:50 p.m., jurors returned and advised the court they were still deadlocked at 10-2 and did not believe there was any possibility of coming to a unanimous decision.

Worthington declared a mistrial, remanded Mukes to the sheriff and placed the case on the docket for Sept. 19 to set a new trial date.

District Attorney Rob Hudson said his office “will be looking to retry the case.”

     

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