COVID delays Manny Ellis jury deliberations; legal expert weighs in
Manny Ellis death trial deliberations delayed again, this time from COVID
Yet again, jury deliberations in the trial of the death of Manny Ellis have been forced to restart, this time because of COVID.
TACOMA, Wash. - For the second day in a row, jury deliberations in the Manny Ellis death trial have been delayed due to an issue with a juror.
On Tuesday, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff announced a juror had to step away from deliberations due to COVID.
That meant an alternate juror had to step in and deliberations needed to start all over again. However, this just happened one day before.
On Monday, a juror had to leave due to a family emergency.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Deliberations restart as alternate juror is seated in death trial of Manny Ellis
"Everyone in that jury room should be involved in every conversation about the verdict. So, when you bring in a new juror, and that juror has missed two or three days of deliberations, the other jurors have to bring the juror up to speed," said Mark Lindquist.
Lindquist is a legal expert. He worked as the Pierce County prosecutor for about a decade, and now has his own private practice.
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He says despite the new juror missing two days of deliberating last week, he believes it will only take a few hours to catch them up.
Lindquist says there are four alternate jurors total, and he believes that is enough to deal with any more possible delays.
Lindquist says these continuing delays mean it will take longer to get a verdict.
"This was a long trial. There was a lot of evidence, and the public scrutiny is high. Jurors are going to want to look at this from every possible angle. So, when it’s done, they feel that its defensible, and they did the right thing," said Lindquist.
He believes we will not get a verdict until January.
Court officials said if the jury does not reach a decision by this week, the earliest we can get an answer is some time in the new year. This is because the jury will not deliberate during the last week of December.