Jurors were unable to reach a decision today in the trial of Brandon McInerney, who in 2008 took a .22-caliber handgun to school and shot the openly gay Lawrence King twice in the back of the head during class.
The jury reported to Judge Charles Campbell that they made several attempts at a unanimous decision, with the last one being seven in favor of voluntary manslaughter, while five others supported either first-degree or second-degree murder.
County prosecutor Maeve Fox argued that McInerney, who was 14 at the time, was becoming a white supremacist who saw gay people as an abomination. His defense argued that McInerney lost his mind after King said that he wanted to change his name to Latisha, and went into a dissociative state in order to shoot King point blank in the head.
Prosecutors will now need to decide whether to re-file murder and hate crime charges against McInerney who had been tried as an adult.