TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-
A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the hazing trial of five Florida A&M University fraternity members after the jury said it could not reach a verdict.
The trial would have been the first to test a new state law that makes such activities a felony if they result in death or serious bodily injury.
Jurors deliberated for more than three hours, but the mistrial was declared about 20 minutes after they sent a note to Circuit Judge Kathleen Dekker asking for a more substantial definition of serious bodily injury. The jurors also asked how to distinguish between serious and moderate injury. She told the jury there was no further legal instruction.
Four Kappa Alpha Psi brothers were charged with using canes, boxing gloves and bare fists to beat aspiring fraternity member Marcus Jones, 20.
The Decatur, Ga.-native said he was beaten so severely over four nights of an initiation ritual that he suffered a broken ear drum and needed surgery on his buttocks.
The fifth defendant was accused to assisting in the alleged hazing by encouraging Jones and other would-be fraternity members to bear up under the beatings and revived them with water when they passed out from the pain.
The defendants accused of striking Jones are Michael Morton, 23, of Fort Lauderdale; Brian Bowman, 23, of Oakland, Calif.; Cory Gray, 22, of Montgomery, Ala., and Marcus Hughes, 21, of Fort Lauderdale. Jason Harris, 25, of Jacksonville, was accused of assisting them.
“This was no accident. This was no joke. This was not playtime at the frat house,” Assistant State Attorney Frank Allman said in his closing argument. “This was intentional. This was dangerous.”
Florida’s 2005 hazing law makes it a third degree felony, with penalties ranging from probation to five years in prison, to cause death or serious bodily harm but does not define the latter term.
Dekker had instructed the six-member jury it means injury that is neither slight nor moderate.
