Mistrial Declared In Dayonte Resiles Murder Trial After Juror Disagreed With Manslaughter Verdict
By Jacqueline Quynh December 8, 2021 at 6:11 pm
Filed Under:Dayonte Resiles, Deborah Souverain, Jacqueline Quynh, Local TV, Miami News
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – A judge has declared a mistrial in the Dayonte Resiles murder trial, one day after the jury delivered a manslaughter verdict, only to have its decision rescinded moments later when a juror said she didn't agree.
"I don't know what to expect honestly, I feel like the journey has just been nervewracking like being here everyday and then being told okay you gotta come back tomorrow, you gotta come back tomorrow, and I'm just happy," Dayonte Resiles' sister, Amelida said after the annoucement.
Dayonte Resiles was on trial for the 2014 death of Jill Halliburton Su in Davie. Su, a wife, and mother, and the grandniece of Halliburton oil founder Erie Halliburton, was found stabbed to death in her Davie Home.
Tuesday night, after Judge John J. Murray read the verdict that found Resiles guilty of manslaughter in the 2014 death of Jill Halliburton Su, he asked the jury if they agreed with it.
"Is this your verdict?" Murray asked each juror.
"No," replied one person.
"You need to go back to the jury room and continue with your deliberation, thank you," Murray told the jury.
The judge said that if a unanimous verdict could not be reached, he would declare a mistrial. After failing to reach a decision Tuesday night, deliberations resumed for a sixth day on Wednesday morning, but the jury was deadlocked, and the judge declared a mistrial.
"When the jury is polled to have one juror to say no your honor that's not my verdict that's quite rare," Craig Trocino, Miami Law Innocence Clinic Director, at the University of Miami School of Law.
"The polling of the jurors happens as a matter of course and it's for this reason right because you don't want dominant personalities in a jury room convincing someone to enter into a jury vote, against their will or against their conscience," he explained
The law requires that the jury be unanimous, and in this case, the prosecution had a burden that was high to meet. A 1st-degree murder conviction could have Resiles facing the death penalty.
"I have faith, and I feel like God is in the midst of all of this, I know that if he was here, today, this whole journey that all of us encounter, he's going to be there the next trial," Amelida Resilas before she left.
Jury selection for the new trial is set for January 3, 2022.
Jacqueline Quynh
More from Jacqueline Quynh