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Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

FRIDAY, Jan. 20, 2006, 2:57 p.m.
Sudden plea deals in tire slashing case

In an unexpected twist in the Election Day tire slashing trial, four former Kerry-Edwards campaign staffers, including the sons of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) and former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt, have agreed to plead no contest to misdemeanors. Prosecutors will recommend probation sentences as part of the deal.

The plea agreements came in the middle of jury deliberations after an eight-day trial on felony property damage charges that carried potential 3 1/2 year prison terms upon conviction.

The surprise resolution was offered by prosecutors at 2 p.m., nearly 7 hours into deliberations and an hour after a jury note complained of an impasse.

Defendant Justin Howell was the only one of the five charged not included in the deal. The no contest pleas have not been formally made yet, but when they are, jurors will be left to deliberate the felony charge against Howell.

A note this morning from the jury to the judge about the verdict forms had hinted it was considering at least some convictions in the case, but the jury did not return a verdict before breaking for lunch.

Then around 1 p.m., the jury sent a second note suggesting they could not reach a verdict. “We have people that are adamant about their decision and are not budging. We don’t know what to do,” the note read in part.

Defense attorneys immediately requested a mistrial, which Circuit Judge Michael Brennan denied. He doubted that the jury was intractably hung, since testimony lasted close to seven court days and deliberations had only been going about six hours.

“That’s (an) insufficient amount of time to declare a mistrial,” Brennan said, and ordered the jury to continue deliberating.

Less than an hour later, news of the plea deals emerged.

-By Derrick Nunnally