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FORT WORTH — A Tarrant County jury recessed Tuesday night after telling the judge they were having trouble reaching a verdict in the capital murder trial of a man accused of stabbing a 68-year-old Arlington woman to death two years ago while stealing her pain pills.
The jury of eight men and four women deliberated about 4 1/2 hours before telling 213th District Judge Louis Sturns that they couldn't decide whether 27-year-old Dustin Nall was guilty of capital murder or the lesser charge of felony murder in the Aug. 4, 2007, robbery-slaying of Bertha Wilkerson.Nall would receive either death by lethal injection or life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of capital murder. The most he could receive if convicted of felony murder would be life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years.The jury foreman told Sturns that some jurors believed Nall was guilty of capital murder and others wanted to convict him of felony murder. He asked Sturns what they should do. The judge replied with a note to read the court's charge and continue deliberating.About an hour later, the foreman told Sturns that the jury could not reach a verdict. While Sturns and attorneys worked on a charge urging the jury to continue deliberating, the foreman told Sturns they wanted to recess for the night.Sturns granted that request after strongly admonishing them not to discuss the case or read or watch any news accounts of the trial.Troubled backgroundWhen the jury returns at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sturns will read to them what has become known as the Allen charge: It tells the jury that the case will have to be retried if they can't reach a verdict and urges them to listen to other jurors and try to arrive at a verdict that doesn't violate their individual consciences.To convict Nall of capital murder, jurors have to unanimously agree that Nall intentionally killed Wilkerson while robbing her or burglarizing her house.If they unanimously reject the capital murder conviction, they can decide whether Nall is guilty of felony murder — which means that, while robbing Wilkerson, he committed a dangerous act that resulted in the woman's death.In closing arguments Tuesday morning, defense attorney Joetta Keene acknowledged that Nall killed a kind woman who had previously befriended him and his girlfriend."There is nothing to justify what happened to Mrs. Wilkerson," she said.But Keene, who tried the case with Robert Ford, argued that Nall did not intend to kill Wilkerson when he went to her Arlington duplex Aug. 4, 2007, to steal her drugs.She said that Nall was still traumatized after stabbing his uncle, Danny Nall, to death three hours before and slashing the throat of his own girlfriend, Camille Cuellar.Keene said Danny Nall had abused his nephew since childhood. She said he triggered his nephew’s violence that morning by having sex with Cuellar.Dustin Nall was so upset after the first stabbings at Ray’s motel where the family was living that he handed the knife to his mother, Laura Addison, and began screaming, Keene said.
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