Jury deadlock scraps slaying trial

A judge schedules Negii Coffee to stand a new trial in November in a Market Street shooting death.

The Patriot-News

August 20, 2009

The attorney for Negii Coffee, left, said he was concerned that a lack of money would hamper Coffee’s defense in the new trial.

Jurors who had deliberated since Monday were unable to reach a decision Wednesday in the nine-day trial of Negii Coffee, accused of killing John Bruno, 33, in Harrisburg in 2004.

Judge John F. Cherry dismissed the jury at 4:30 p.m. and scheduled a new trial for Nov. 16. The trial began Aug. 10, and the jury didn’t begin deliberating until Aug. 17.

Earlier Wednesday, Cherry had implored the jury to come to a decision.

“This is an important case, I believe you know that,” Cherry told the jurors. “The trial has been expensive in terms of time and effort and money and emotional strain to both the defense and the prosecution.”

“Another trial would only serve to increase the costs to both sides, and there is no reason to believe that the case can be tried again by either side any better, or more exhaustively, than it has been tried before you,” he told them.

They returned to the courtroom around 4:30 p.m., announcing that they failed to come to a consensus.

*Justin McShane, Coffee’s defense attorney, was concerned about the lack of a verdict.*

*He said the trial was not just emotionally difficult, but also a financial drain on Coffee’s family. McShane said he spent thousands of his own money to bring in an expert witness.*

*”[Coffee] won’t have the additional money to try this again with the experts that should be afforded to him,” McShane said. “It’s a funding crisis for the family.”*

Family members of Coffee and Bruno attended the trial and occasionally spoke to each other. As they left the courtroom, they exchanged a few quick words.

Aea Coffee, Negii Coffee’s mother, said she believed her son was innocent and wished Bruno’s family well.

Negii Coffee, 31, an admitted drug dealer, is in prison, serving time for previous gun charges, and McShane said he is expected to be there for another eight years.

Bruno was killed Sept. 4, 2004, just inside New York Fried Chicken on Market Street, and Coffee was arrested in 2007.

Assistant District Attorney Fran Chardo argued that experts proved which gun was used in the shooting, and that Coffee was in possession of the gun during the period of the shooting. A former girlfriend testified that Coffee brought her the gun and asked her to hide it because he had been shooting it and police might be looking for it.

Another witness testified that Coffee and Bruno had been seen together during a drug transaction, Chardo said.

*McShane argued that no witnesses put Coffee at the crime scene, and that Coffee would be a “moron of Biblical proportions” if he kept a gun that could tie him to a shooting. He said the investigation did not adequately follow other leads.*

Chardo said retrials can often help the prosecution, because it has a preview of what evidence the defense will present.

After the trial, Chardo said Bruno’s family was OK with the result in that they were at least happy Coffee wasn’t acquitted. He said though “no one likes a tie,” the family understood that it’s part of the system.

“The dynamic is a difficult one: 12 jurors, 12 strangers, coming together,” Chardo said. “It’s amazing we get consensus as often as we do. It’s bound to be that sometimes we won’t.”

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