After four hours of jury deliberation failed to produce a verdict, Circuit Court Judge Lee Howard declared a mistrial Wednesday in the capital murder and arson trial of Traveil Hicks.
Hicks, 20, is accused of killing his neighbor, Gwen Roberson, and burning her trailer in 2014.
It was the second day of Hicks’ trial. The state called two expert witnesses and the defense rested without calling a witness.
The jury left the courtroom to deliberate at about 2:40 p.m. When Howard called them back in two hours later, the jurors reported they were deadlocked at 10-2 for the arson count and 9-3 for the capital murder count. When their numbers were the same two hours later, Howard declared the mistrial and said Hicks’ new trial would be set at a later date.
Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Clemons called the result “frustrating.”
“But we will try it again and hope that a different jury reaches a just result,” she said.
Hicks will return to Lowndes County Adult Detention Center to await his new trial. He is being held without bond.
Though it is a capital murder case, Hicks will not face the death penalty if convicted because he was 17 at the time of the incident.
Closing arguments
During closing arguments, Clemons called the case a “textbook example” of physical evidence matching witness testimony.
When the trial began Tuesday, Hicks’ ex-girlfriend, Shae Boykin, testified that Hicks told her he broke into Roberson’s trailer on Aug. 11, 2014, to steal money from her. He said he hit her in the head with the butt of his gun during the incident, then again with a cast iron skillet, stabbed her in the back of the neck and set her couch on fire, Boykin testified.
On Wednesday, former State Fire Marshall Albert Carver, who investigated Roberson’s trailer fire, testified he determined the fire had been caused intentionally and had started in a part of the trailer where neighbors and friends of Roberson he interviewed told him there had been a couch.
Following Carver’s testimony, State Medical Examiner Mark LeVaughn testified the injuries on Roberson’s body indicated that her cause of death was blunt and sharp force trauma. Using photos taken of Roberson’s body, he pointed out injuries he said were consistent with blunt force trauma to the head and a stab wound to the back of the neck.
“Every part of Shae’s story is corroborated by the physical evidence,” Clemons said.
Public Defender Steve Wallace argued there was no physical evidence proving Hicks was even at the trailer that night. He pointed out that investigators never found a gun, nor did they find a couch where they determined the fire started. He added that investigators never found any of Roberson’s property on Hicks.
He argued Boykin had motive to turn Hicks over to the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office because she was angry at him.
“Remember, Shae Boykin was breaking up with him because he’d had a sexual relationship with her mother,” Wallace said. “Shae Boykin was mad at him. They’d kicked him out of the house.”
Clemons countered that all the physical evidence tying Hicks to the crime burned up in the fire and that Hicks would never have been arrested had he not told Boykin what happened.
“He gave her blow for blow, wound for wound, what he did to that woman,” Clemons said. “No one but the person who killed Gwen Roberson could have known what those injuries were.”
Wallace did not make himself available for comment after Wednesday’s ruling.
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