Hung jury dismissed in second trial of EMDC jail guard

A jury in the trial for Leslie Lonsbary, a former EMDC corrections officer, has been dismissed after failing to reach a verdict. 

After about two and a half days of deliberation, multiple questions to the judge, and various expressions of uncertainty from the jury, Superior Court Justice Peter Hockin said he feared the jury would reach a verdict "not on evidence, but on the wrong reasons." 

"We've reached the end ... you are therefore discharged," he told the group of jurors, many whom responded with smiles, Wednesday evening.

This is the second time Lonsbary has been on trial for allegedly failing to provide the necessaries of life to an inmate beaten to death in his cell in 2013. 

During the first, earlier this year, the jury was unable to come to a verdict and the case ended in a mistrial. His co-accused was found not guilty.

Lonsbary was one of the guards on duty the night of Oct. 31, 2013, when inmate Adam Kargus was beaten to death in the cell he shared with Anthony George at the London, Ont., provincial jail. 

During the trial, the jury heard Kargus screamed for his life and other inmates in the jail were calling for help, but Lonsbary didn't respond. 

In a statement to police six days after the beating death, Lonsbary said he heard nothing out of the ordinary, despite the fact that other inmates said they heard Kargus yelling. 

Family prepared for third trial

Outside the courthouse, Kargus' mother Deb Abrams stood with her sister and expressed disappointment over the jury's deadlock. 

"The judge even said 'It's not a hard case.' The facts were there, the evidence was there ... It's clear that he was begging for his life and nobody came to help him," she said. 

While court has been adjourned until Oct. 2, there's no information on how the court will proceed. However,  Abrams assured that if given the opportunity, she would be back for a third trial. 

"If the crown wants to do it and they think they can do it, we'll keep fighting for justice ... What's another six years?" she said. 

Jury sees new evidence

This jury was given access to Lonsbary's statement to police in the days following the Halloween night murder, long before he was charged with a crime. 

In a transcript of his conversation with a London police officer, Lonsbary says "nothing out of normal" happened that night. 

"There was the normal hooting and trying to converse back and forth from cell to cell through the door, so there it's (sic) not quiet by any means, but it was no different than any other night of the last 10 years I've been here on a night shift," Lonsbary told the police. 

Lonsbary said sometimes inmates do bang on their cell doors to get guards' attention, if their cellmate has had a heart attack or stroke, for example, and the sound is "just a roar, it's just a thunder" that you "can't miss." But he did not hear that noise the night of the murder, Lonsbary said. 

Anthony George pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2017 and is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 years