No verdict reached in day 2 of jury deliberations for 2017 Worcester bridge attack trial
No verdict has yet been reached after two days of deliberations in the trial of Joshua Hubert , a Worcester man accused of kidnapping, raping and throwing a 7-year-old girl off a bridge in 2017.
The jury began deliberations in the case at 11:25 a.m. on Tuesday, following a week of testimony in Worcester Superior Court. They've now accrued about 11 hours of deliberation since.
The jury asked three questions on Wednesday — two about technical language and information on the cellphone data.
The third question was about a lack of a unanimous decision.
"A question has arisen about what happens should a unanimous decision not be reached on an indictment?" Judge Karin Bell said Wednesday afternoon.
David McShera, a Worcester County prosecutor, argued the jury was saying they were not deadlocked yet, and that deliberations were too early for the judge to provide more instructions "based on ambiguity of the passive wording."
Defense attorney Kevin Larson agreed with the prosecutor that jurors weren't saying they were deadlocked, and asked the judge to tell them "their verdict must be unanimous."
Jurors heard from the girl herself — now 15 — along with her parents and grandfather.
A man who claimed to have seen a car similar to Hubert's on the bridge in the early morning hours of Aug. 27, 2017, also testified, along with a doctor who treated the girl at the hospital, several police officers from Worcester and Shrewsbury involved in the investigation and forensic experts.
Prosecutors' main evidence included video surveillance of Hubert driving around Worcester in the early morning hours the day of the suspected crime as their main proof, along with footage of him with his son vacuuming out Hubert's car the morning following.
They also pointed to the girl's testimony and memory from that night, when she said she saw Hubert's face as he put her in his car.
However, there is no forensic evidence linking Hubert to the crime, only that of the girl's father. Hubert's defense attorney argued the entire case was completely "unbelievable" — from the cellphone data proving Hubert was not at the bridge at the time of the crime, to the girl's father's sperm cells being on her underwear after the attack.
Deliberations will continue at 9 a.m. on Thursday.
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