Jurors in slaying trial reports split

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

GASTONIA -- Jurors in the murder trial of a Caldwell County man charged with killing his wife were to resume deliberations today after leaving the Gaston County Courthouse on Monday in a deadlock.

Shortly before 4:45 p.m. Monday, the jury foreman gave Judge David Cayer a note saying "a few of the jurors seem unwilling to state reasons why they believe one way or another."

The foreman did not say in her note how many jurors disagreed with the majority. "Opinions," she wrote, "have been stated and are unwavering."

Cayer told defense attorneys, prosecutors and jurors, who had been deliberating for nearly 15 hours, that the jury needed to discuss the case further and try for a unanimous decision.

"Given the length of this trial and the complexity of this evidence, I'm not going to stop deliberations," he said.

Jerry Anderson, 48, faces first-degree murder charges in the shooting death of his wife, Emily, and could face the death penalty.

Emily Anderson disappeared from her husband's dairy farm Dec. 29, 2005. Ten days later, her Chevrolet Silverado pickup was found 100 miles away in an S.C. parking lot. She had been shot twice and her body crammed into the truck bed's large toolbox.

Cayer has told jurors that they can find Anderson guilty or not guilty only of first-degree murder, not a lesser charge.

The motive, prosecutors have argued, was Emily Anderson's $4 million life insurance.

Attorneys for Anderson have argued that Emily Anderson had been dead two to four days when her body was found, about a week less than the prosecution said.

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