EVERETT — A Snohomish County jury on Friday claimed it had reached a verdict on all but one count in the murder trial of a former Boeing mechanic accused of killing 15-year-old Molly Conley in a drive-by shooting in 2013.
Jurors said they were deadlocked on a single count and called it a “stalemate” in a note they sent the judge late Friday afternoon. They had been deliberating about six hours.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wynne instructed jurors to return at 9 a.m. Monday to continue deliberations on the lone count.
The judge told lawyers that given the length of the trial and the large number of exhibits and witnesses he didn’t believe jurors had deliberated long enough for him to declare a mistrial.
It wasn’t revealed Friday what count is in dispute among jurors.
Erick Walker, 28, is charged with first-degree murder for Molly’s death. Prosecutors allege he showed “extreme indifference to human life” by randomly firing into a group of teenage girls walking along a dark Lake Stevens road.
Walker also is charged with nine other counts, a mix of first-degree assaults and drive-by shootings for a gunfire spree from Lake Stevens to Marysville.
Prosecutors allege Walker shot Molly as she was walking with friends on S. Lake Stevens Road. He is accused of returning to Lake Stevens a couple of hours later and shooting up three houses there. Prosecutors say he drove to a Marysville neighborhood near his own house and fired into a home and numerous vehicles before he sideswiped a parked car.
Walker’s defense attorneys argued that there is no direct evidence that connects their client to the deadly gunfire. The bullet that pierced Molly’s neck was never found despite days of searching the road, trees, underbrush and lawns.
None of Molly’s friends saw the shooter.
A ballistics expert testified that bullets recovered from houses and cars in Lake Stevens and Marysville matched two revolvers owned by Walker. He said without a bullet there was no way know what kind of gun was used to kill the Seattle teen.
Prosecutors urged jurors to look at the totality of the evidence. The shooting scenes were in close proximity and there is strong evidence that the gunfire came from a vehicle, jurors were told. Walker admitted to detectives he was driving in Lake Stevens the night of the shooting.
Jurors heard testimony from a video analyst who said Walker’s car was consistent with a vehicle captured on a home surveillance camera the night Molly was killed, blocks away.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley
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