After more than eight hours of deliberations, a Miami-Dade jury Thursday found it impossible to come up with a verdict in the trial of a man accused of fatally stabbing and burning a woman in Homestead back in 2013.
Robert Holton is accused of the murder of Kayla Gloster, a woman he once dated.
Throughout jury deliberations, jurors asked questions regarding DNA evidence. The court reporter played parts of an expert testimony stating DNA evidence was found five times, in the form of blood, inside the crime scene and it matched the defendant's. Once again, jurors heard the odds of someone else's DNA matching the one found inside the apartment is one in 2.7 quadrillions.
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After a few questions from the jury, Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez "Allen charged" the jurors. The jury was expected to go into their private room, discuss the facts one more time, and come back with a verdict or tell the judge one couldn’t be reached.
After about an hour, the jury told the court they couldn’t all agree. The judge declared a mistrial.
Gloster’s family broke down outside of the courtroom, including the victim's mom, who testified in the trial. It's been 10 years since their sister and daughter was found fatally stabbed and burned inside her apartment. In 2015, Holton's trial was also declared a mistrial after a testimony.
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“There is a God above. This is not the end," Gloster’s grandmother Karen Dickson told NBC6. "It’s a mistrial, not that he is walking out freely.”
Holton’s family said they didn’t take this mistrial lightly and claimed their relative's innocence.
“There was never a conviction of what exactly happened inside there. There was a fire. Beating, stabbing — but it was never put together. And probably brought the jury not to be unanimous," Jimmy De La Ferra, the attorney representing Holton told NBC6.
If convicted on first-degree murder, Holton would have been the first person in Miami-Dade County to enter a death penalty phase honoring a new law, where only eight jurors were needed to recommend death.
It’s unclear if there will be a new trial. A hearing is scheduled for next week.
“If the state is continuing to seek the death penalty, I would rather see this case resolve by way of plea," De La Ferra said.
